This project is part of a wider initiative at the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) on Innovative Finance and aims at assessing and sizing the financial needs of enterprises working along food value chains that could produce nutritious foods in Kenya and Tanzania with a particular focus on small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and food systems after the farm gate (including everything to get crops to markets and/or processing but not harvesting).
The scope of this project focused on assessing the financial needs and investment readiness of these SMEs through structured interviews. The gathering of this information led to the development of capital needs-based archetypes of enterprises working in or alongside these value chains.
In total, 52 companies were interviewed and categorised into five different archetypes that inform the financing needs of these companies: grants, outcomes-oriented finance, raw materials/inventory finance, productive asset finance, and high-growth finance.
This report presents the results and major insights revealed from analysis of the interviews as well as the financing gaps and opportunities for impact investors.