https://site.pearlcapital.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/pcp_logo6-e1622959064923.pngOur story
We are an independent agriculture investment management firm with offices in Kampala and Nairobi. We administer portfolio management on behalf of Yield Uganda Investment Fund, a Euro 2 million agricultural fund that was launched in 2017, African Agricultural Capital Fund (AACF), a US$25 million agricultural fund that was launched in September 2011, the African Seed Investment Fund (ASIF), a US$12 million seed fund formed in August 2010 and our original investment company, African Agricultural Capital Ltd (AAC), formed in 2005 with US$ 9 million in equity subscriptions.
PCP’s original investment company African Agricultural Capital Ltd (AAC) was established in 2005 by Gatsby, Rockefeller and Volksvermogen of Belgium to address the “funding gap”: a lack of small business finance holding back a large number of high-potential enterprises in Africa. The social impact and potential returns from addressing this funding gap is most pronounced in agriculture.
The investors capitalised AAC to channel finance to agricultural enterprises, whose growth could catalyse the development of the value chains they operate in, delivering high social impact and strong financial returns, and encouraging future sector specific investments, by demonstrating to the private sector that such investments can be profitable.
We invest between US$250,000 and US$2 million in growing agricultural small and medium-sized businesses in East Africa, typically using a combination of equity, quasi-equity, equity-related and debt investments, delivering relative to our sector, top quartile financial returns to our investors, while creating significant positive social impact on smallholder farmers.
Initially and in accordance with direction from our investors, our investments focused mainly on supporting businesses with significant social impact rather than creating market-leading financial returns. In recent years and in light of positive financial returns from earlier investments, our focus shifted towards considering potential investments equally along social and financial lines.
To date, the Yield Fund, has made seven investments in Uganda worth over EURO 5.8m. These include: Sesaco – an agro-processing company, processing and manufacturing soy based products; CECOFA – a primary processor and exporter of coffee organized through a smallholder farmers’ co-operative structure, Chemiphar – an internationally accredited analytical lab, Raintree Farms – a value-added processor of moringa, Pristine Foods – a pasteurized liquid egg processing company, Clarke Farm Ltd – a company specializing in the production and processing of fine specialty washed Robusta coffee for the premium export market and Naseco (1996) Ltd- a company that produces, processes and distributes certified seeds in Uganda and is growing exports across the regional East African community.
