Africa has the ability to produce everything, yet, it is the most food-import dependent region of the world allocating 13% of its import to food...
Everyone Invests in Pieces—We’re Building the Whole Puzzle
Food securty continues to be a major challenge for Sub-Saharan Africa, despite significant investment. We believe that in order to truly adress the challenge a strategic approach needs to be adopted across the entire value chain. We aim to create a connected ecosystem of SME’s that thrive and scale together. Bringing us one step closer to solving the issue
Transforming East Africa’s Food System:
Bridging Investment Gaps for a Resilient Value Chain
Food Import Dependency
Demographic Surge
Underfunded Agriculture
Aid vs. Trade Gap
Building the supply chain
Imagine helping local companies gain the network benefits of a conglomerate, while still maintaining the agility and focus of an SME
That's exactly what we're doing here.
The East African Context
East Africa possesses all the natural resources needed for a thriving, self-sufficient food industry—fertile land, a favorable climate, and a large labor force. Yet, the region remains heavily dependent on large international food processors for staple foods that could be produced and processed locally. This reliance limits economic growth, keeps food prices high, and constrains access to healthy, locally sourced products.
Despite agriculture being the backbone of the economy, limited capital investment in both primary production and food processing has prevented the development of a resilient food ecosystem. As a result:
Locally grown crops often leave the region as raw commodities, only to be imported back as expensive, processed goods.
Small and medium-sized agribusinesses struggle to scale due to inadequate access to financing, infrastructure, and value-chain support.
Consumers face high food costs, not due to scarcity but because of inefficient supply chains and dependence on global markets.
By addressing these challenges, we can create a more self-reliant, prosperous, and food-secure East Africa—where high-quality, locally processed foods are the norm rather than the exception.
Our vision
Sapling54 aims to revolutionize food security in East Africa through commercially cultivating its food industry and in so doing contribute to the reduction of the reliance on food imports by at least 25%. From seed to shelf, we’re growing a more self-sufficient future.
Sapling54 will achieve this by:
Building a commercially sustainable Farm-to-Plate (F2P) network, we empower SMEs with shared services, strategic collaboration, and access to capital - unlocking the network benefits of a conglomerate while maintaining their agility
Cultivating East Africa’s food industry and make it future proof. We invest across the entire food value chain to build a resilient ecosystem where entrepreneurs thrive together.
Fostering local production and innovation, we drive value creation in the region - reducing reliance on imports, creating high value jobs for the entrepreneurially driven young population and positioning East Africa as a leader in high-quality consumer goods.
With problems arising across the value chain, investment should be targeting solutions across the value chain.
A Value Chain Approach to Food System Investment
Investing in companies active across the food system avoiding a silo approach
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Meet Our Investment Experts
Our team consists of dedicated professionals with a wealth of experience in the financial industry.
Emely de Andrade
Investment Principle:
Emely de Andrade is a seasoned financial professional with a wealth of experience in corporate and investment banking, having held senior roles at globally recognized institutions such as J.P. Morgan and ING Bank. Her client base spanned across large corporates and financial institutions across EMEA.
In addition Emely led several capital raising and advisory transactions for Food and Beverage businesses across EMEA. As a Financial Advisor she focusses on providing African businesses with strategic debt and equity advisory services.
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Jacques Steffens
Permanent Investment Committee member
Jacques has over 35 years of Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) experience with deep blue-chip, C-suite corporate experience in Unilever, Elizabeth Arden and Orangina Schweppes/Suntory. He has a proven track record in strategic leadership, operational execution, finance & IT and organisational development working across diverse sectors, audiences and global locations. He has supported and led M&A, M&A Integration and successful fund-raising efforts. Since 2015, he is an independent entrepreneur, investor, advisor and non-executive director for SME’s in East Africa, specifically in the Healthcare, Affordable Housing/Financing and Food sectors.
Investment Philosophy: Strategic and Patient Capital
Fostering Growth Through Purposeful Investments
Farm-to-Plate invests in companies across East Africa that are active in the Food Value Chain and thus contribute to regional food security.
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We provide minority or majority equity injections of $250k-$1.5m, whose use of proceeds is mainly aimed toward Capex expenditures. Over time, we may opportunistically offer working capital loans to existing investees with a tenor of up to 3 years; however, this would only apply to going-concern businesses.
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While our capital is patient and we can wait up to 24 months (depending on the project) for investment cash flows to be generated, we target projects that will start to show a Return on Equity (RoE) within 36 months of capital deployment.
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Farm-to-Plate will not invest in export-centric businesses but instead focuses on companies that offer a healthy blend between export and local markets or those exclusively catering to the local market.
Impact
Our impact goes beyond traditional metrics—no matter how you measure it, Farm to Plate is set to make a real difference in tackling East Africa's food security challenges.
