Senegal

Lysa & Co is a Senegalese company specializing in the processing and marketing of agricultural products such as peanuts, cashew and corn.It has long-standing expertise in providing its customers with healthy, natural products of high taste quality, elaborated with local raw materials processed by artisanal processes.

Sold under the name SENAR- Les Delices de Lysa, products are mainly marketed in major retail chains in Senegal (CASINO, AUCHAN, EXCLUSIVE, CITYDIA, etc.), in hotels (eg NOVOTEL), and in direct sales to private individuals in Dakar ( eg Dakar Farmers Market).

The Entrepreneur

Sylvie Sagbo Gommard took over the management of the family business in 2015 to ensure its development and sustainability.

In 1982 her mother Mrs. Sagbo was the first to market her peanuts in supermarkets in Dakar. She built her own company and now has more than 10 employees working tirelessly to supply the Senegalese market with the best peanuts and cashews.

Partnership with Teranga Capital

Teranga committed alongside with the company to:

• Support the construction of a new factory abiding international standards and leading to increasing production capacity.

• Support the valorization of the SENAR Brand « Les Délices de Lysa » and its business development on new markets and with new products

Expected Impacts

• Formalization of the company’s activity

• 10 new formal jobs created

• Promotion of artisanal and local processes and structuration of the value chain

COGELEC ENERGY is an engineering company based in Dakar, Senegal. The company is present in electrical engineering and line construction works, rural electrification and distribution of electromechanical equipment.

COGELEC ENERGY is focused on bringing energy for productive uses to rural areas in Senegal for the greater benefit of the Senegalese population. Within rural electrification, COGELEC ENERGY focuses on providing the most economical energy possible for productive use in rural communities, with a particular focus on bore wells in remote locations.

COGELEC ENERGY’s clients include governments with whom they partner long term to provide electricity access and services for rural areas, as well as industrial companies looking for the most economical solutions to build conventional grid connections or using renewable energy.

The Entrepreneur

Cogelec Energy is managed by Abdou Wahab Kane.

Partnership with Teranga Capital

Teranga committed alongside with Cogelec Energy to:

• Support the expansion of the logistical equipment and the investments in human resources to strengthen its capacity to execute increasingly complex projects

• Support Cogelec Energy in elaborating and executing its strategy with a view to improving its organizational efficiency and promoting growth

Expected Impacts

• Extend electricity access and services to rural areas

• Increase the competitiveness and energy efficiency of Senegalese economic players and give them access to sustainable energy solutions

OuiCarry provides delivery services and allows its customers (individuals and businesses) based in Senegal to buy products from international commercial websites.

The clients can choose from any commercial website, which gives them access to very wide range of products. For those without credit card, OuiCarry can buy the product online on behalf on the client. OuiCarry currently counts several thousand customers and has made good progress over the last few years.  

Compared to other alternatives, OuiCarry brings high-quality services at moderate cost and within a relatively short period of time (less than 10 days for an expedition coming from Europe for example)

The company was rewarded in 2016 by the Orange FAB prize and has also been the finalist of the “Great Entrepreneur Competition” held by the British Council.

ENTREPRENEURS

OuiCarry was co-founded by three entrepreneurs: Olabissi Adjovi, Youssou Ndiaye and Pape Oumar Yam.

Olabissi Adjovi grew up in Benin and moved to France to study at the National Institute of Applied Sciences in Lyon. He holds a Master on entrepreneurship from ESCP Europe.

Youssou Ndiaye graduated from Lyon’s Ecole Polytechnique. Before working for OuiCarry, he co-founded and managed Speed Mail Service, a mailing company dedicated to Senegalese businesses.

Pape Oumar Yam graduated in economics and transport management from the University Of Economic Science Of Montpellier. He came back to Senegal in 2009 and became soon associated on Speed Mail Service and OuiCarry projects.

PARTNERSHIP WITH TERANGA CAPITAL

Teranga Capital investment in OuiCarry aims to:

• Accelerate the growth of the company, providing the financial, human and technical means to strengthen its bases and seize market opportunities

• Support the team on the company’s strategic thinking and the effectiveness of their organization

EXPECTED IMPACTS

• Structure the e-commerce sector in Senegal l

• Encourage African entrepreneurs with an example of entrepreneurial success

Neurotech is an information and technology provider delivering solutions for Senegalese enterprises. Created in 2003, the company has become one of the major IT integrators in Senegal.

The company has progressively extended its activities to include datacenters management, communications platform, management solutions, business intelligence and high-ended services.

THE ENTREPRENEUR

Neurotech was created in 2003 by Adboulaye Mbaye, a computer engineer graduated from Tunisia. He has worked more than ten years for major telecommunication and technology companies, such as Orange branch in Senegal, TIGO, CBAO, or Gambia Telecom.

Abdoulaye actively contributed to the launch of the CTIC, the first ICT incubator in francophone Africa. He is deeply involved in the support and mentoring of young people proposing new projects in the ICT sector.

PARTNERSHIP WITH I&P 

I&P committed alongside with Neurotech to:

• Develop the activities of the company in the sub-region

• Develop the range of services offered by the company, to include Cloud-based solutions

IMPACTS 

Neurotech is involved in the network ‘’CSR Senegal” (RSE Sénégal) and is active on various social issues including education, environment, and the promotion of human capital.

Thanks to this partnership, Neurotech set up a thorough CSR policy to support sustainable projects while keeping the focus on education issues and the promotion of new talents.

Nest is a medical network settled in Senegal, offering a complete monitoring of woman and young child.

Founded in 2012, NEST provides a complete monitoring of woman and children thanks to a pediatric and maternity hospital. NEST offers high-quality health services at reasonable price, primarily aimed at middle classes. Accessible 24/24 and 7/7, NEST puts a particular emphasis seeing and listening to patients, and allows young women of child-breeding age to be followed until the birth, and a follow-up of their children until they are 15 years old.

This model, inspired from the Indian private chain of maternity hospitals Lifespring Hospital, is particularly relevant in Senegal, where local medical offer is shared between expensive private clinics and public infrastructures suffering from a lack of technical means and standards. NEST embodies a gap-filling role within this market.

NEST is one of the companies featured by the project Small is Powerful

The Entrepreneur

Khadidiatou Nakoulima grew up in Senegal and graduated from Mines de Paris in 2009. Several members of her family working in the medical field, Khady is deeply aware of the health issues in Senegal. She founded NEST in 2012 with the help of her father, Alassane, her brother Ousseynou and Dr. Adboulaye DIOP, gynaecologist. Khadidiatou currently manages the company. She aims at establishing a health network dedicated to woman and children in West Africa for low and middle-income populations.

Partnership with I&P

I&P is committed alongside Nest for All to:

• Provide a preliminary expertise regarding maternity and its equipment

• Finance the equipment and complete the maternity construction site

• Bring a support to the administrative and financial management teams (Management and information system, contracts with doctors…)
 

Key Impacts

• Improvement of children and pregnant women medical follow-up

• Larger health services access to the greater

• Medical waste management

Sofamac is engaged in the production of clay construction, such as tiles and clay bricks, intended for local use.

Clay production, which was quite common until the end of the 1970s, now offers a real market opportunity. The products show great thermic and time resistance and match an unsatisfied local demand for construction and equipment.

THE ENTREPRENEUR

Moussa Dia is a civil engineer entrepreneur who ran for more than twenty years an engineering and metallic construction business (sheds, water towers…) in Saint-Louis, Northern Senegal. His passion for terracotta and the opportunity of the market led him to found SOFAMAC a small terracotta handcrafted production unit.

PARTNERSHIP WITH I&P

I&P committed alongside with Sofamac

• To undertake a market study for terracotta bricks

• To carry out a feasibility study for the project

KEY IMPACTS

• Production of a construction material more adapted to local demand with a better energetic balance and entirely recyclable items

• Enhance local production, in substitution to foreign imports

• Lower consumer prices

Delta Irrigation sells and installs irrigation equipment and provides technical assistance to its clients in Senegal and Côte d'Ivoire.

The company serves a wide landscape of customers: small traditional farmers eager for technical assistance, intermediate operators who do not have sufficient technical service and major national projects and developers.

THE ENTREPRENEURS

Jean Pierre Chapeaux graduated as an agronomist, specializing in tropical regions. He began his career as a researcher in Belgium, then in Burundi. He led a family business in Belgium and a cardboard and packaging company in Burundi before becoming Operating Director in two of the largest farms in Senegal. He can be considered as the initiator of drip irrigation in the Senegal River valley. He created Delta Irrigation in 2003.

Bruno Demulder, geographer, led rural development projects in Senegal before taking the operational management of Delta Irrigation in 2010. 

PARTNERSHIP WITH I&P

I&P committed alongside Delta:

• To finance and to make formal the company’s growth strategy in Senegal and Ivory Coast

• To set up a functional IGS within the company

KEY IMPACTS

• Development of local agricultural production through the use of drip irrigation systems

• Streamlined and efficient use of water

• Participation in food security

• Implementation of health insurance for employees

• Development of the missing governance tools

NOVAGO (formerly known as "VRS") is a company with 20 years' experience in the field of full service long-term vehicle rental.

Created in 2004 by two French entrepreneurs, Pierrick Morier and Thomas Crand, NOVAGO has grown to become a key player in the long-term vehicle rental and fleet management sector in West Africa (Côte d'Ivoire, Senegal and Ghana), with a fleet of around 1,000 vehicles in 2023.

The company provides rental services for a wide range of clients, from professionals/SMEs to some of the larget international corporates based in West Africa. NOVAGO's activities include fleet management, vehicle maintenance and servicing, assistance and repairs, driver services and insurance.

NOVAGO plans to expand its activities in Benin and Togo.

The entrepreneurs

The management team consists of Jérôme de Villard, Chief Executive Officer of NOVAGO Africa, and Manuella Sako, Chief Financial Officer of NOVAGO Africa, Romain Pinto, Chief Executive Officer of NOVAGO Ghana, Mohamed Ly (NOVAGO Senegal) and Ramatoulaye Balde (NOVAGO Côte d'Ivoire).

The founders of the company, Pierrick Morier and Thomas Crand, are both members of the Board of Directors.

Partnership with I&P

I&P invested in the company in 2014 through its fund I&P Afrique Entrepreneurs, and reinvested with the fund IPAE 2.

Support by IPAE 1 (2014-2022)

⇒ The fleet managed by NOVAGO has grown from 80 to 800 recent, fuel-efficient vehicles.

⇒ Originally based in Ghana, the company has expanded its activities in Côte d'Ivoire and Senegal thanks to the support of IPAE 1.

⇒ I&P supported the implementation of a solid ESG plan for NOVAGO, symbolised by the launch of the first 100% electric vehicle in Côte d'Ivoire in 2023.

Ongoing projects (IPAE 2' investment)

In March 2023, NOVAGO completed a new round of financing with I&P (through IPAE 2) and Adiwale Partners. This new investment aims to :

⇒ Strengthen the company's business in its existing markets

⇒ Support NOVAGO's expansion into other West African countries

Key impacts

⇒ Creation of local standards within a nascent market

⇒ Development of a green cars offer

⇒ Pollution control policy (waste oil recycled) and implementation of a carbon offsetting strategy with the support of I&P and Ecosur Afrique

⇒ Improvement of employees’ social conditions thanks to a healthcare system

Read more

⇒ Company's website

La Laiterie du Berger is the only Senegalese company to manufacture dairy products from local fresh milk, collected from more than 800 farmers in the area Richard Toll in northern Senegal. The products of Laiterie du Berger, distributed in more than 6,000 outlets in late 2012, face a stiff competition face to products made ​​from imported milk powder and dairy products from the informal economy.

THE ENTREPRENEUR

Bagoré-Xavier Bathily was born in Dakar and studied veterinary medicine in Belgium. He then worked in France and for an NGO in Mauritania. In 2005, with strong support from his brothers and sisters, he created La Laiterie du Berger to enhance the production of fresh milk in Senegal.

PARTNERSHIP WITH I&P

I&P committed alongside with La Laiterie du Berger to:

• To provide the capital needed for the company to start

• To contribute to the early strategy of the company

• To progressively implement management tools

• To contribute to the expansion of the shareholder base

• To provide technical assistance on various topics (operational and financial)

IMPACTS

• Steady revenue granted to 800 rural families guaranteeing economic security and preservation of their traditional activity

• Contribution to the structure of the dairy industry in Senegal

• Offer of healthy affordable dairies in individually marketed goods

Colaser is an ophthalmologic clinic aiming at responding to the needs of a broad and diverse clientele such as individuals, employees under healthcare programs, retired people, middle-class people, and foreigners. The clinic has followed an unfluctuating growth since its creation. It carries out 10,000 consultations and 1,400 medical procedures every year, among which 110 retinal detachments and as many refractive eye surgery.

Colaser stands as the most important ophthalmologic center in terms of equipment and expertise. It substitutes to medical travels in Europe for numerous diagnostics and cares. Within a few years, Colaser has become a model for West-African ophthalmological clinics, and attracts a steady flow of patients from neighbor countries.

ENTREPRENEURS

Colaser was created in 2007 when the care supply was highly insufficient. It was initiated by 4 doctors: Pr. Lam, Dr. Seck, Dr. Jouni and Dr. Jaffar. Aliou Lam and Makane Seck are military doctors and surgeons. They formerly worked at the Hopital Principal of Dakar and took the chance, while leaving the army, to settle in Senegal and invest in the private sector.

PARTNERSHIP WITH I&P

I&P committed alongside with Colaser :

• To provide a key financial and strategic support at the company’s creation

• To grant the founders a loan that would enable them to purchase high-technology pieces of equipment

• To strengthen the administrative service of the clinic.

KEY IMPACTS

• 21 jobs created

• Improvement of the local medical offer

• Successful example of associated doctors