About Investisseurs & Partenaires
About Investisseurs & Partenaires
1. About Investisseurs & Partenaires
Incorporated in 2014, iProcure is a Kenyan agricultural supply chain platform operating in rural areas within East Africa.
In addition to procurement and last mile distribution services to agro-dealers, iProcure provides business intelligence and data-driven stock management across the supply chains.
The platform offers a variety of services to consolidate the fragmented supply chain in rural areas:
iProcure has started expanding to Uganda by installing the Point of Sale platform at the agro-dealers within the country, and will eventually launch a full scale expansion to Uganda and Tanzania. The company is also considering expansion to West Africa, using the vast experience they have already gained.
THE ENTREPRENEURS
The company was co-founded by Stefano Carcoforo and Nicole Galletta:
PARTNERSHIP WITH I&P
EXPECTED IMPACTS
Ed Partners Africa is a non-banking financial institution that aims to provide adapted financial solutions to the education sector and especially to affordable schools in East Africa.
Context
In Kenya, the rapid urbanization combined with the rising income levels have increased the demand for private schools as the quality of public schools is wanting. In 2018, there were 52,000 registered and unregistered private schools in the country that focused on primary and secondary enrolments. Ed Partners currently lends to both affordable and middle-income schools, affordable schools being those with annual school fees below USD 300. By mid-2021, the company had disbursed a total of USD 1.5 mililon to over 140 schools.
The government has until now turned a blind eye to the existence of these schools, but has recently mandated that all schools with non-compliant infrastructure will be shut down. This is therefore incentivizing already registered schools to upgrade their infrastructure and for unregistered schools to start the registration process and to begin investing in compliant infrastructures. Therefore, most schools will require additional investment in equipment and basic infrastructure.
In this context, Ed Partners aims to fill the gap in the current market by providing customized products, understanding schools’ special needs and proposing tailored complimentary services to affordable schools in Kenya and in the long term in the region.
The model was conceived by replicating the proven business model of Varthana, a school financing company in India, with 7 years of experience and a current portfolio size of USD 157 million provided to over 3,500 schools.
Ed Partners was founded by a team of 4 microfinance experts with on average 15+ years of experience in impact investing and in microfinance in East Africa and in India. Together, these founding members bring their expertise and network to support the roll-out of the project in the region.
Ed Partners is currently managed by Amos Mwangi who is the CEO. Amos has 17 years of experience in business development, sales, credit management and leadership. He previously worked 6 years as a Business Development Manager at Faulu Microfinance Bank in Kenya where he oversaw 44 branches in 38 locations. Before Faulu Microfinance, he worked at Equity Bank and Family Bank in various roles at both branch and head office level. Amos holds a Masters in Banking and Finance from Moi University and achieved complementary business and finance studies at Kenyatta University.
The partnership between Ed Partners and I&P (through its fund I&P Afrique Entrepreneurs 2) aims to:
⇒ Ensuring a wider geographical coverage with the opening of 6 additional hubs in 6 counties in Kenya
⇒ Funding EdPartners’ loan book. The company anticipates a rapid growth of the loan book to reach 6,000 loans disbursed to about 3,000 schools in the next 5 years
⇒ Supporting further expansion into the rest of East Africa within the next few years, where there is significant demand for the products offered by Ed Partners
Ed Partners has the potential to have an important impact on the education sector in Kenya and in the long term in East Africa.
The company enables improvement in the quality of education offered by middle-income and affordable schools by providing access to adapted financial solutions and coaching.
Launched in 2014, The African Management Institute (AMI) provides formalized training to empower managers and entrepreneurs.
AMI has developed over 45 practical business modules – including over 2,000 tools – with Africa’s leading business schools and global experts on adult learning. AMI’s training strategy and programs are based on a blended offer of both online material and in-person workshops with experts in their field.
Through its programmes, AMI aims to reach 20,000 people in 11 African countries.
AMI was co-founded by Jonathan Cook and Rebecca Harrison.
Jonathan Cook is the current Chairman of AMI. He has over 25 year-experience in management education, facilitation, coaching and consulting. Prior to founding AMI, Jonathan spent almost 10 years at GIBS, one of Africa’s leading Business Schools, where he served at various times as a senior lecturer, the Director of Executive Education, Academic Director, Executive Director and finally Director of the Business School until December 2013.
Before that, he spent 14 years as a faculty member at Wits Business School, where he founded the Management Development Unit and later became Director of Academic Programmes. He also spent 10 years with the National Institute for Personnel Research in Johannesburg. Jonathan continues to teach part time at GIBS in the areas of leadership and personal development, and is chief consultant of Thornhill Associates, where he advises companies in developing and implementing leadership development processes using customised 360-degree questionnaires.
Rebecca Harrison is the current CEO of AMI and has led the team since inception. Previously, Rebecca spent 9 years as a foreign correspondent and manager for Reuters News Agency, where she led business coverage in Africa and reported on politics, markets and development from 13 countries in Africa, Europe and the Middle East. Rebecca completed her MBA in Entrepreneurship at South Africa’s Gordon Institute of Business Science, where she was awarded a Kellogg Foundation grant to conduct research into innovation in low-income markets. She is passionate about democratising skills development and supporting entrepreneurship in Africa through practical and affordable learning tools.
I&P committed alongside with AMI to:
• Help AMI further its reach in existing and new markets
• Bringing quality education to middle management of African companies
• Delivering employability training programs and formation to entrepreneurship to the youth, women and a larger number of small-scale entrepreneurs