Agri-Vie Fund II

Subsidy : November 2020

BIO has given €350k of technical assistance to Agri-Vie Fund II, a specialised food & agribusiness investment fund active in Sub-Sahara Africa

Amount

€ 350,000.00

Type of investment

Subsidy

Development impacts

Local economic growth
Promotion of ESG best practices

Beneficiary locations

Sub-Saharan Africa: Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia

Investment field

Investment Companies & Funds

Activity

KK.64.300 SME Fund

Organisation

Agri-Vie Fund II

Website

https://www.exeocapital.com/

Domicile

Mauritius

More investments in

Agri-Vie Fund II

Subsidy € 200,000.00 (2023)
Equity € 6,552,700.00 (2017)

Agri-Vie Fund II is a successor fund to Agri-Vie I, a specialized food & agribusiness investment fund active in Sub-Sahara Africa. Agri-Vie Fund II will continue the same investment strategy as its predecessor fund, orienting itself to providing growth equity through influential minority positions in mid-size companies in selected subsectors in food and agribusiness.

Agri-Vie focuses on geographies and sector segments that were selected based on top-down research and the team’s experience with Agri-Vie I. Out of the 48 countries in the region, the fund manager favours countries with a high growth, stable political environment and underserved consumer markets. As a consequence, the fund manager aims to invest up to 25% in South Africa and expects that next to this, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia will be the most important invested countries.

Technical assistance

The Technical Assistance Facility (TAF) aims at co-financing a variety of studies (marketing, business strategies,…) and other projects to develop capacities and transfer know-how, technologies, skills, and experiences to Agri-Vie Fund II portfolio companies.

The expected impact of the TA facility is to support Agri-Vie Fund II portfolio companies to improve their sustainability, performance & competitiveness, especially in the SMEs agribusiness sector.

Development impacts

Local economic growth
Poverty reduction and economic growth by supporting companies in the agriculture and agribusiness sector.
Promotion of ESG best practices
Introduction of sustainable practices

Made possible through this investment

Thanks to the direct funding from BIO, the following second-line investments have been made possible.

Capital Fisheries

Zambia

Established in 1999, Capital Fisheries and its subsidiary, Capital Trucking Limited (Capital Trucking), together are the market-leading Zambian cold chain food distributor, specialising in the distribution of frozen animal proteins. Capital Fisheries is a widely recognised national consumer brand, serving across formal and informal markets as well as income classes.

Chemical Process Technologies

South Africa

Manufacturing of pesticides and other agrochemical products

Chemical synthesis company manufacturing parasitic formulations as well as advanced pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) for the South African livestock markets.

FSDCo

Tanzania

Frostan is a food services distribution group formed through the consolidation of two existing companies in the fresh and temperature-controlled food sector in Tanzania. The consolidation involves Frostan Ltd, a Dar es Salaam-based poultry and ancillary foods business and Mtanga Foods Ltd, a red meat operation with activities in southern Tanzania and Dar es Salaam.

Glacier products

Kenya

Glacier Products Limited (GPL) is a Kenyan company that manufactures and sells a wide range of ice cream, yoghurt, and chocolate products across East Africa, under the brand name ‘Dairyland’.

Jumbo Brands

South Africa

Jumbo Brands is a South African beverage and snack manufacturer. The product basket includes coffee, cordials, fruit juice concentrates, squash, lemon juice, vinegar, and corn chips.

Marginpar Group (Kariki)

Ethiopia, Kenya

A cut flower production group, based in Kenya with operations in Kenya, Ethiopia and Holland.

Nurture Foods/Fairview Cheese Investments

South Africa

Fairview Cheese is a South African company specialized in cow and goat milk artisanal cheeses.

PPTL

Tanzania

PPTL is based in Tanga, Tanzania and is a major regional player in the production of woven polymer-based extruded products – bags, sacks and tarpaulins for the agriculture and cement industries.

TerraSan

South Africa

Terrasan is a South African fishing and aquaculture group that holds investments in aquaculture and pelagic fishing, as well as fish, fishmeal, and fish oil processing through its subsidiaries Saldanha Protein, Terrasan Pelagic, Aqunion, and Blue Ocean Mussels.

The Maia Group

South Africa

The Maia Group has been formed as a holding company to incorporate Wellness Warehouse (WW) and True Health Holdings (THH) into a new consumer health-focused platform that operates in the natural health, food, and beauty value chain as a manufacturer, wholesaler, distributor, and retailer.

Read impact and news about this project

Impact Story

Flowers of Hope

08-06-2020

BIO has invested USD 7 M in equity in Agri-Vie II, a specialized food & agribusiness investment fund active in Sub-Sahara Africa. They have invested in Marginpar Group. Mr Richard Fernandes is the CEO of Marginpar Group, formerly Kariki. This is his story.