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E24 - Esther Ndeti, Managing Partner at Unconventional Capital
63 Plays13 days ago
What if financing could adapt to the realities of a business, instead of forcing businesses to adapt to rigid financial models?
In this episode, Esther Ndeti, Managing Partner at Unconventional Capital, explains how she is pioneering new ways of financing SMEs, especially in the agricultural values chains across Africa. Esther shares why traditional funding models often fail entrepreneurs. Many businesses are too early for venture capital and lack the collateral required for bank loans. Her answer? Revenue-based financing. Instead of fixed repayments, businesses repay investors through a percentage of their revenues. When the business grows, repayments grow. When revenues fluctuate, payments adjust. We also talk about the broader ecosystem: • why SMEs are critical for Africa’s future workforce, the growing role of local investors and angel networks, and how technology can reduce bias in investment decisions. What emerges from this conversation is a powerful idea: finance should meet entrepreneurs where they are, not the other way around.
Please review the episode, share your feedback, and subscribe to the podcast!
You can also:
- Visit our website: womenchangingfinance.org
- Follow Esther on LinkedIn
To go further, here are some of the references mentioned during the episode:
- Unconventional Capital — https://unconventional.capital/
- Impact Investing Kenya — https://impactke.org/
- GSG Impact — https://gsgimpact.org
- East Africa Private Equity & Venture Capital Association (EAVCA) — https://eavca.org
- Victoria Business Angel Network (VBAN) — https://www.vban.africa/
- Nairobi Business Angel Network (NaiBAN) — https://naiban.com
- FSD Africa — https://fsdafrica.org
- Level (investment management platform) — https://levelapp.io
- Theft by Abdulrazak Gurnah, https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/763656/theft-winner-of-the-nobel-prize-in-literature-by-abdulrazak-gurnah/
Women Changing Finance is part of the Impact Alpha Podcast Network.
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Transcript
Introduction to Women Changing Finance
00:00:04
Speaker
Hi, welcome to the podcast Women Changing Finance, where you will discover amazing women from all around the world who are making finance become a force for good.
00:00:21
Speaker
Welcome to the podcast, Women Changing Finance.
Esther Andetti's Role in African SME Financing
00:00:24
Speaker
I'm Krisztina Tora, and I'm welcoming today Esther Ndeti, Managing Partner at Unconventional Capital, leading a 30 million fund pioneering new financing approaches tailored for early stage, small and medium-sized enterprises across Africa.
00:00:39
Speaker
She also sits on the board of Impact Invest in Kenya, the GSG Impact National Partner in Kenya. And before this, she ran the East Africa Private Equity and Venture Capital Association. I met Esther eight years ago, and since then I have been really impressed by her energy and commitment to supporting African entrepreneurs and investors in creating impact.
00:01:00
Speaker
Esther, it's so wonderful to have you on the show today.
Kenya's Impact Investing Ecosystem
00:01:03
Speaker
So as a first question, can you please describe how you see the impact investment or the impact ecosystem in Kenya? Thank you Krisztina. It's such a privilege to be on your podcast today. i have been a keen follower. of of the podcast and your guests over the past few months. And so it feels really great to be one of the guests on your show.
00:01:25
Speaker
Thank you for your question. Impact investing ecosystem in Kenya. That's a big question, Krisztina. I mean, you do know that in my opinion, Kenya is sort of the the home of impact investing. Impact investing has been alive and kicking in Kenya for well over two decades. You'll find Kenya is the home of several impact and investors and impact businesses and has been for quite a long time.
00:01:50
Speaker
And so just being able to witness the evolution of the industry of the ecosystem has been
Collaboration in Impact Investing Kenya
00:01:56
Speaker
wonderful. So, you know, where we are today in 2025, we're seeing ah still several players in Kenya in terms of impact businesses, impact investors, donors, funders. We're seeing the government starting to also plug into impact investing conversations and initiatives because there's an alignment with government initiatives to what the impact investing ecosystem is seeking to address.
00:02:23
Speaker
When you look at sort of like the goals with food and health and infrastructure, affordable housing and things like that. These are all sectors and areas that are well aligned with sort of like the impact investing goals as well.
00:02:39
Speaker
And so at Impact Investing Kenya, what we are is, what I like to describe as is a consortium essentially of actors um that are representative of the entire ecosystem.
00:02:52
Speaker
On the board, for instance, we have private sector. We have inclusive banks, insurance companies, but we also have government and pension funds represented on this board.
00:03:03
Speaker
Obviously, we have impact investing funders, investors on on the board as well, because one of the things that we had seen and Kenya is that there was several amazing interventions and ah things and themes that were happening, but they were happening in silos.
00:03:21
Speaker
So impact investing was cropping up as a conversation in the private sector, corporate sector, but it was a standalone conversation there. Impact investors themselves had a sort of like galvanized and come together, but they were acting as impact investors on their own.
00:03:37
Speaker
And then government as well, there was touch points here and there, but not completely synchronized sort of like with the wider ecosystem. And so Impact Invest in Kenya works to make sure that all the voices are on one table to sort of like keep driving the growth of impact investing here in Kenya.
00:03:55
Speaker
And so, you know, there's many things that we're working on. We're working on sort of like issues on the demand side, looking at mismatches between demand and supply. We're looking at sort of like, are they effective enterprise services that are impact focused, that we can be able to sort of like ah galvanize and sort of like develop further and ensure that they're reaching as many impact businesses in the country.
00:04:21
Speaker
And the policy side of things, making sure that policies and regulations that are optimized for social enterprises and impact investing. We're making sure that incentives and macroeconomic stability are things that the government is thinking about.
00:04:36
Speaker
as they are sort of like increasing their presence in the impact investing space as well. We're looking at all the fragmented ecosystem initiatives. I'm looking at what the DFIs are doing, what the development partners are doing, what entrepreneurs are doing, the government agencies, the intermediaries, and sort of making sure that everybody's aware of what's happening on each other's corner, but also that that they're working together and they're sort of like leaning on each other and building further up and reaching higher heights than where they have reached so far.
00:05:09
Speaker
We're looking at what we're seeing as not enough early stage financing for SMEs and startups. We're looking at not enough data on impact investing or market activity in general.
00:05:23
Speaker
We're looking at exit-related challenges as well, and certainly things around lengthy fundraising and transaction cycles. And so through our initiatives at Impact Investing Kenya, we're making sure that all of these ah things are themes that we are addressing and working together collectively to address. So again, like I said, lots of things happening here in Kenya.
00:05:46
Speaker
That's really exciting. Thank you so much for this landscape description and barriers, but also how you were you're working to solve them. Can you tell us about your work? So you're one of these ecosystem players.
00:06:00
Speaker
Can you explain what unconventional capital is and how it works?
Unconventional Capital's Revenue-Based Financing
00:06:04
Speaker
I talked about in the earlier question, so this not sufficient early stage capital available for SMEs and startups in this market.
00:06:15
Speaker
At Unconventional Capital, we purposely from the very get-go decided to address this to unlock not only just capital, but relevant capital. And I'll explain what I mean.
00:06:27
Speaker
The capital that had been for a long time available for businesses um in this side of the world either sat in straight debt or traditional equity.
00:06:37
Speaker
And so what we found is that there's several businesses, one who need early stage capital, which there wasn't enough of, but need alternative forms of capital because either they don't have sufficient collateral assets to be able to unlock traditional debt.
00:06:56
Speaker
But at the same time, maybe they don't have that hockey stick growth that venture capital is looking for. And so what do you do with such businesses? Where do they find financing? So what ah we did at Unconventional Capital is we picked revenue-based financing,
00:07:10
Speaker
as the instrument of choice to sort of start providing capital to businesses that needed a form of debt that was flexible, that was collateral free, and that was going in sync with their cycles. So being able to sort of like make bets on their future revenues and sort of like be able to make a payback based on that.
00:07:32
Speaker
So founder friendly, you know, and more relevant to certain types of businesses. So at Unconventional Capital, we provide revenue based financing. We invest in businesses that are operating in the agricultural and climate resilient value chains, including secondary actors that are within logistics, trade, finance in the sector.
00:07:51
Speaker
And so we've been doing that for the past Six years, which is quite surprising. Time does fly when you're doing things that you are passionate about. Previously, we were sector agnostic, but like I've mentioned right now, we're focused on the agricultural and climate resilient value chains because we found that is where a lot of businesses were operating and sort of like needed this type of capital that we have that I've talked about right now.
00:08:15
Speaker
Thank you so much. That's a ah great introduction. So revenue-based financing, can you explain it a little bit more how you work with the businesses, how you select them? How does it work completely when you work with the business?
00:08:28
Speaker
And perhaps could you give some examples of of types of businesses that you work with and or yeah how you select the businesses? This has been an evolution in terms of how we select our businesses. When we first started, we did open calls.
00:08:43
Speaker
one of the things we were trying to address was the biasness of capital. So you'll find that in the investment world in general, if you, capital is referral based. so being able to know, you know, the right ah circles to be in, you you know, the right rooms to pitch in on things like that, right? It's So what we try to do is to democratize that by creating an open platform. Anybody can apply, you know, for capital. And and then up our we have a propriety platform um technology that we had developed to be able to sort of like help us screen and pick businesses ah based on the online applications with their things.
00:09:25
Speaker
That has since changed because we used to get tens of thousands of applications and the verification of the data mentioned sort of like lack of data ah being one of the challenges that is faced in this side of the world.
00:09:38
Speaker
so the The difficulty in the verification of data became something that became a bit of a challenge to be able to select quality businesses. And so even though we were looking at tens of thousands of businesses or supposed businesses, and many of which were also ghost businesses, I think it was also punitive to the really good businesses that are trying to sort of like break through all of that and, you know, be able to reach us.
00:10:01
Speaker
We've changed our strategy recently, and now we're working with the many, many intermediaries and partners on the ground who are in this specific value chains. So development partners who have programs, enterprise support organizations, also known as Enterprise Support Organizations (ESOs) in the market,
00:10:18
Speaker
which are inclusive of accelerators, incubators. We have service providers, business service providers, inclusive of even the lawyers and and tax advisors out there.
00:10:28
Speaker
All of
Innovative Agricultural Solutions Funded
00:10:29
Speaker
these people are sending pipeline our way. And this has been so much more effective in terms of being able to source and find these businesses. We're finding businesses in Nairobi, in Yata, these are places that are outside of Nairobi, in rural Uganda um as well. And so it's been really, really fantastic just being able to still break away from referral base that is very narrow to like referral base that's a bit more broader in terms of the actors that we're working with um to be able to source these businesses.
00:11:05
Speaker
The businesses, ah you asked for some examples. Some of the businesses we have in our portfolio, we have a business that is collecting all this fruit that is going to waste.
00:11:17
Speaker
I think the statistics say that 60% of harvested fruits goes to waste um in Kenya. And so one of our entrepreneurs has found a way to be able to collect all this like fruit and sort of like teach the farmers in that area how to help drying processes and things like that.
00:11:35
Speaker
They collect them as well for the factory and the drying and making products for the local and for the export market. It's quite fascinating. It's a female founder and quite fascinating the work that they do.
00:11:47
Speaker
We have businesses that have found ways to unlock financing for farmers because we don't work with farmers directly, but we work with the value chain after primary producers going on up.
00:12:00
Speaker
And but then because you need a lot of hands and feet on the ground ah to be able to be relevant and of value to farmers. And so we found entities that are working with farmers and creating beautiful products that actually make sense for them.
00:12:16
Speaker
And so we have some of those on board as well. We have some businesses that are providing digital services for farmers as well to be able to understand ever-changing climate cycles that we're seeing now.
00:12:28
Speaker
and all of that and to be able to help them figure out how to have effective harvests and effective produce as well. And so, yeah, it's it's been absolutely fantastic building out our portfolio and meeting incredible founders in this part of the world.
00:12:44
Speaker
Yeah, it sounds like a very exciting job and then kind of seeing all of the different models and businesses out there that are doing this work. So tell us more about revenue-based financing.
00:12:57
Speaker
That was part of your question as well, yes. Yeah, tell us more. but revenue-based financing is essentially investors like us being able to sort of like make a bet on your future revenues.
00:13:09
Speaker
We invest a sum of capital into your business. Having looked at what your revenues look like over the past let's say 12 months, 24 months or whatever it is. And sort of understanding what the trajectory of your cut of your business looks like for the next few years.
00:13:24
Speaker
And essentially we give you a sum of capital, you'll pay back that sum of capital at a multiple, let's say 1.2 X of that capital over a period of time.
00:13:37
Speaker
But it's based off a percentage of your monthly revenues or quarterly revenues, depending on your business. And so the beauty of this is that unlike traditional debt where every month you have to pay a fix of money or capital cash every month, let's say you took a loan of whatever amount and you have to pay a hundred thousand every month.
00:13:59
Speaker
We know that businesses, particularly in the sectors that I've talked about, you know, the cycles don't match that. You won't be able to guarantee 100,000 repayments of a loan every month.
00:14:11
Speaker
However, revenue-based financing, it's percentage of your revenue. So if we say 5% of your revenues on any given month, that means your payments are fluctuating based on the performance of your business on any given month.
00:14:25
Speaker
That means 5% zero revenues is 0%. So we are in it for the ride with you. We're taking a huge bet on you. We're not taking any collateral in your business. And so essentially we are, we are good, we're partners with the business and the founders of the business.
00:14:42
Speaker
So do you give them support as well as financing? Yeah, we do give some form of support and starting later this year, this year is going to be a bit more of that.
00:14:55
Speaker
One of the things that businesses in our portfolio or the businesses to come across that, you know, struggle with, well, two of the main things, one is financial management.
00:15:05
Speaker
And so, their accounting systems and sort of like how they just keep track of their finances and understand the sort of like the growth of the business and their projections ah things are things that are not, they're not too conversant with. And so the team comes in and is able to support with that right from the get go, whether you get capital from us or not.
00:15:28
Speaker
That's one thing you're going to walk away with, because once you've assessed your business, we give feedback peace and and you you're able to understand, okay, this is what is needed. This is how I should look at my business. This is how I should project moving forward. These are the gaps within our operations, how we should think about improving our sales or our teams or whatever it is.
00:15:47
Speaker
And so that's something we definitely do. And then the second one is... A lot of the businesses are looking for capital in the long run, right?
00:15:57
Speaker
And so once they have sort of an investment in us, what we one of the things we do is we start putting them in front of other investors out in the market to be able to start thinking about their long-term financing needs.
00:16:11
Speaker
So maybe you were not ready to be a VC investor at first because, you know, you were just a bit early and you needed to be able to have some cash in you so you can sort of like ramp up your operations.
00:16:22
Speaker
And then now after having been with Uncommercial Capital for two years, then now you're ready for like a VC investor. And so we deliberately and intentionally make sure that we link them up with investors that make sense for them once they're done with us.
00:16:37
Speaker
Thank you. That's very clear and seems to be very relevant for those businesses. You also said that at the beginning, when you started doing this work, you received thousands of applications and from businesses.
00:16:50
Speaker
Revenue-based financing, do you feel that there is enough of of that out there? And if not, why and how can we do more of it?
00:17:01
Speaker
Great question. When we started, i can know confidently say, I think you could count the number of revenue-based financing providers on the continent in one hand.
00:17:13
Speaker
So back in 2019, there was not enough people of funds or firms that were doing this.
Adoption of Revenue-Based Financing in Africa
00:17:19
Speaker
But that has positively changed in 2025. We see that there's many other the funds that have adopted revenue-based financing within their own strategies or have set up, you know, standalone revenue-based financing funds out there.
00:17:34
Speaker
And this is exciting. And it's not just revenue-based financing. It's just alternative forms of capital that are more fit and relevant to businesses in Africa. We're seeing that starting to happen.
00:17:45
Speaker
It was a huge you know challenge for a long time it because entrepreneurs were like, listen, you're looking for a business that is going to 10x have unicorn status, but that's not the business I'm building. That's the most of the businesses.
00:17:58
Speaker
95%, 99% of businesses on this continent are not going to become unicorns. All right. OK, so let's walk to 99%. That 99%, many of them are not going to be attractive to traditional lenders.
00:18:12
Speaker
So where do they fall? What kind of financing is there? And so to see more alternative models emerge, we're certainly not there yet. We still need a lot more early stage capital. still need more models coming out in this market.
00:18:27
Speaker
But the fact that we're starting to see that happen is really exciting. That's one. But also the sign to see local capital come into play as well is really something that excites me more than anything.
00:18:41
Speaker
Because one of the reasons that the models have been so stringent and stuck for so long is because private capital has been underpinned by foreign capital on this continent for a very long time. And so you essentially adopt the models that you find out there. It's If a funder from a different part of the world is accustomed to a certain structure, a certain model, that's what you're going to keep applying because that's where the capital was coming in from.
00:19:08
Speaker
But there have been very many deliberate efforts to sort of like unlock local capital. So the more you see a local capital come into play as well, the more you start seeing also local solutions in terms of financing models that make sense for businesses on the continent.
00:19:24
Speaker
We're still at the very, very early stages of this. But the fact that it's starting to happen, that's exciting to me. Yeah, that's really a great sign. Do you have examples of of things that you are seeing with this local capital coming in?
00:19:38
Speaker
Where is it coming from? Where is it going? Who's helping? I won't say too much about it. And this is because, again, still early stages And so because it's early stages, there's still a lot of things that need to be fixed and figured out, especially policy-wise, regulation and structure-wise as well.
00:19:58
Speaker
those are things that still being so like crafted as we speak. But with regards to local capital, where coming from, we're seeing, one, angel investing has really grown.
00:20:10
Speaker
Personally, I'm also an angel investor, part of the Victoria Business Angel Network and the Nairobi Business Angel Network, NIBAN. And interestingly enough, angel investing in other parts of the world was born out of high net worths investing in businesses.
00:20:29
Speaker
What we're seeing here in Kenya, for instance, these angel investing networks are, i wouldn't call them high networks. I would say they're upwardly mobile individuals who, you know, have a little bit of disposable income and rather than put it in traditional asset classes like real estate, would much rather see businesses receive this capital and grow their own local economies and figure out solutions for their own societies.
00:20:58
Speaker
And that's so interesting to see and just and so exciting. And hopefully that then brings in the high net worth as well as I see more and more success stories coming out of there.
00:21:08
Speaker
The other source of local capital, obviously, pension funds. We have more than trillion Kenya shillings sitting as assets under management in the pension industry. That has been a long conversation, just making sure that they understand what, know, venture capital, impact investing, private equity is, and sort of like where they can absolutely make critical input by being a player within the industry. And so that has been slow, but I do know that there are about two, three funds here in Kenya.
00:21:44
Speaker
They're emerging funds, they're new funds, but they've somehow been able to get the pension funds to be able to commit capital towards their funds. The announcements are going to happen soon. And so just keep an eye on that. I'm really, really excited about that.
00:21:59
Speaker
I think between the two, between the angel investing and the pension funds, those are two critical sources and places we should keep our eyes on. We're seeing corporate Kenya as well now starting to think about creating vehicles, CVCs, or just playing into the impact investing ecosystem as well.
Local Capital's Role in Impact Investing
00:22:19
Speaker
And so as IIK, we're also definitely trying to make sure that they understand where the avenues of their participation make sense and how how they can participate more.
00:22:30
Speaker
Yeah. So local capital is growing, not as fast as I would like it to, obviously. I see what is happening in Ghana and Nigeria, for instance. And so, ah you know, I'm just like, let's catch up.
00:22:42
Speaker
But we can also look at them as sort of like peers to be able to emulate um after as well. Yes. And that's, that's exciting. Great examples. i will look out for the announcements.
00:22:53
Speaker
That would be very exciting as well. Tell us about your work. Like what does a typical day look like for you? Krisztina, wish there was a word like typical day. Just before we started this podcast, was telling you how I had to run in from a meeting that was not even scheduled because we're closing a couple of deals and something had come up.
00:23:12
Speaker
And so, yeah, one of the things that i tip that is typical about my day is we have a daily check-in with my team just because we have so many moving parts. We're a very small team.
00:23:23
Speaker
I have two investment analysts and two investment associates within the team and myself. And we're looking at... I mean, in 2025 alone, we've looked at over 200 businesses, right?
00:23:38
Speaker
And so looked at, not invested, just to be clear about that, over 200 businesses. And it takes a lot. It takes a lot to be able to screen them, to go through their financials.
00:23:51
Speaker
to talk to their teams, to be able to understand what markets that they're playing in and be able to sort of like see if they're a good fit for the fund. And so any one of those activities is happening on a given on any given day. So it's critical and essential for the team to check in daily. We have a 15 minutes to 20 minutes check-in.
00:24:11
Speaker
Sometimes we're reviewing the screening analysis of different companies. Sometimes we're giving back feedback from i do a process within the due diligence, you know, field visit or whatever it is.
00:24:22
Speaker
Sometimes ah sort of like I would be probably giving my comments on an investment memo that we prepared or whatever it is. And so the thing that I know that is typical back to your question is that there is that check-in with my team.
00:24:37
Speaker
But then other than that, it's a lot of interaction and engagement with founders. That is the bulk of what we do. But for me as well, obviously I have to then also be out there meeting fellow investors, know, either trying to see if the businesses that we have in our portfolio fits within their mandates as a future investor, because this work needs to start early. We can't wait for the end of the investment cycle on our end to start thinking about investors. We think about them from the very beginning.
00:25:06
Speaker
And we start talking to our potential future funders of our businesses early on. But also one of the things we found interesting is that investors out there, equity investors out there are looking for working capital solutions for their businesses.
00:25:20
Speaker
And we've seen that revenue-based financing is really good as a working capital solution for their businesses. And so it's actually a trade-off. They have any businesses in their portfolio that make sense for us within our sectors,
00:25:32
Speaker
and within our, who meet our criteria and things like that. And so there's a lot of sort of like making sure that we're talking to the right him investors and entities out there as well.
00:25:44
Speaker
And sometimes we're, I mean, spaces like yesterday, i was at that's an FSD climate round table, climate financing round table, for instance.
00:25:54
Speaker
And just being sure you're in the spaces with other similar like-minded ah entities out there, making sure that we are constantly on par and up to date what's happening, but also making sure that they know about us. Because one of the things we came to realize is even though revenue-based financing is growing,
00:26:14
Speaker
as a financing solution out there, there's not enough people who know about it and how it works. And so I have to continue being the ambassador for revenue-based financing in the spaces that I'm in as well.
00:26:26
Speaker
And so that also is something I find myself doing as well. So typical work day, hard to describe, but can promise you, like I can assure you, it's it's never a dull day.
00:26:38
Speaker
Yes, a lot of diversity. You're talking about this part about making sure that your businesses then can get investments when they...
00:26:49
Speaker
kind of finish with you. Do you have any like success stories or like how many of your existing investments have made it to the next level?
00:26:59
Speaker
I am asking this because oftentimes this is something that some investors say that it's really hard to know about successful exits. And I think that you probably have a ah few good stories here.
00:27:13
Speaker
Yeah. ah Well, and would probably have a better answer to that question sometime next year, because initially we did it at an ad hoc basis, but then we only introduced it it as a firm strategy towards the end of last year.
00:27:29
Speaker
So this is when we're actually tracking because we were doing an ad hoc basis, you know, just around what are the needs of our founders and sort of like trying to, then we realized, oh my goodness, we spend an incredible amount of time doing this. So this is when we started tracking it.
00:27:45
Speaker
end of last year. So Krisztina, I promise I'll come back to you with a few success stories, but we did actually with the ad hoc cases, we did successfully get a few businesses funded by other investors.
00:27:56
Speaker
They're not in the ag space, but previously, you remember I mentioned we're agnostic. So we have a bunch of businesses in different sectors who are able to find investors after were done with us. Very interesting. Okay. I look out for for the data.
00:28:12
Speaker
You also mentioned that you have a lot of digital tools that you're using to support the businesses that you're working with. It's quite interesting ah to be relying on digital, which is not necessarily so usual for investors.
00:28:29
Speaker
Tell us more about that part. How is it helpful for the businesses? Maybe how is it helpful for you as well? How do you... And actually, do you use it to measure your own impact or your own performance?
Digital Tools for Investment Enhancement
00:28:42
Speaker
It was interesting. Actually, one of the one of the key things... unconventional capital was trying to solve was for right from the onset was we looked at the investing industry and found it interesting that investors were constantly looking for innovation. Innovation is a big one in the investment industry, but the investment industry in of itself was not innovating, was not, you know, was pretty much doing things a lot in the same way has always done.
00:29:14
Speaker
So you're out there investing in innovation, but the industry itself is not getting innovated. And so from the get-go, we wanted to be able to try and change this.
00:29:25
Speaker
From the start, we built up proprietary tech platform that sort of like adopted different elements of ai and various elements of software and technology to be able to improve the investment process from end to end.
00:29:43
Speaker
This is everything from sourcing to screening, to selection, to sort of like portfolio management right up until exits. We built it on the platform that we built back in the day.
00:29:56
Speaker
It was a tool that we used internally marketing. For four years, five years, until we realized that there were other funds and other players in the market who could benefit from using it. And so then we set aside as an entity on its own, called it Level, and now we're providing that to other funds, accelerators, grant providers, anybody who's looking to provide capital to a business in whatever form, not just revenue-based financing, and is you know he's looking for a tool that is able to help their
00:30:31
Speaker
operations be more efficient and also be transparent and and also the whole element around tech, i removing a lot of bias from one-on-one interactions.
00:30:42
Speaker
And so it's been interesting just in the evolution of that, something that we've used internally to be able to streamline our own processes now is being used by other entities out there. And so, yeah, keep an eye out for Level. Level has been in operations, well, used for the past six years, but now as Level has been over the past one year.
00:31:02
Speaker
That's a brilliant story. Thank you. And great to see the you know expansion of of that digital tool. Well, this podcast is also an opportunity for you to reflect on an achievement.
00:31:14
Speaker
So I would love to hear from you. What are you most proud of? Tell us about your achievements. Or you can also tell us about something that you so want to achieve in the future.
00:31:26
Speaker
I like the second part of your question. I still think it's still early to talk about, in my opinion, there's still so much to do. And maybe that's just a personality thing. So I will talk about so what I'm looking forward to do.
00:31:41
Speaker
So there some statistics that I reflect on a lot on a daily basis. And this is my raison d'etre, the things, why why I do what we do, why we do what we do.
00:31:54
Speaker
i'm I'm African. and I'm born on this beautiful continent of Africa. As of today, we 1.5 billion in population on this continent. And we're set to reach 2.5 billion by 2050. That's a whole billion new Africans coming onto this continent by 2050. And back in the day, I think 2050 sounded like such a far off year. But we're in 2025. That's in 25 years, right? 50% of those Africans expected to live in, 50% of all Africans, us Africans, will be living in cities by 2030, right? And then by world's largest country.
00:32:37
Speaker
africa will host the world's largest working age population, which will be about 1.2 billion people. So these working people, where will they be working? Right?
00:32:50
Speaker
And so this is where the role of SMEs comes in. SMEs are Africa's most powerful unit of change. You know they play a key role in reducing poverty and inequality. We know this, right?
00:33:02
Speaker
Yet the financing gap for SMEs is on this continent is still like $331 billion, right? And it continues expanding.
00:33:13
Speaker
So talking about right now. So if it goes at this rate, I don't know, in 2034, I'm not sure like how many trillion dollars will be the financing gap.
00:33:23
Speaker
This is where we come in. We come in to ensure one, that there are enough SMEs. I mean, we're only a small bit of this of this puzzle, right? But I'm still excited that we're contributing to the growth ofes kind of reducing that financing gap that I've just mentioned, the growth of SMEs on this continent to provide jobs.
00:33:46
Speaker
But not only that, working in the food and agriculture, sort of like industry or sector, I mean, those are very many many, many mouths to feed, right? That are growing every year.
00:33:58
Speaker
And so that's a problem that will continue or rather a need that will continue to have over the next 25 years plus, right? And so being able to ensure that there's sort of like food sustainability, there's agricultural SMEs that are not only creating jobs, but providing food for Africans.
00:34:19
Speaker
That is something I'm excited that we're doing. And I look forward to continue doing and creating more solutions out there as the years go by. I love this mission. And through what you just said, it really comes across, you know, how passionate you are about this work.
00:34:35
Speaker
Tell us about your journey. How did you get here? Krisztina!
Esther's Journey from Engineering to Investing
00:34:41
Speaker
I laugh because mine's an eclectic journey, right? So my my educational background is a mechanical engineering. I only mentioned this because then it explains why my career is the way it is.
00:34:55
Speaker
I started off as sure that I was going to be the most amazing entrepreneur on this continent, you know Building solar kitchen cookers for rural schools in Kenya.
00:35:07
Speaker
Having no business acumen, but all the engineering skills. So, you know, loads of lessons from that. I am what today I call a recovering entrepreneur because that was not that was my first business.
00:35:20
Speaker
Then I had a second business in the food industry as well, but in a different but but from a different angle where was doing food production. And in all of that, you'll find that I've always been passionate about building things.
00:35:33
Speaker
But one of the things I realized is I didn't understand the investment capital space. And I was not the only founder who didn't understand this. And that was when I sort of like ventured into the space of investments.
00:35:48
Speaker
And, you know, I've been there for the past now 14 years, just sort like really understand this investment space. I've worn every hat. I have worn the operator hat. I've worn the policy hat, ecosystem convener hat as well. And now I'm doing the you know investments into this into businesses, into the enterprises.
00:36:08
Speaker
In everything, no matter... how eclectic and different my journey looks, you'll find that it has always been centered and rooted in entrepreneurship. And that's where sort of like the core of who I am lies. And so I'm an entrepreneur at heart and I surround myself with entrepreneurs and ensure that I'm building and supporting the growth of entrepreneurship on this continent.
00:36:32
Speaker
loving this red thread of entrepreneurship. I'm asking this question of all my guests. How does it feel to be a woman doing this job? That's a good question.
00:36:43
Speaker
I think this is the best time to be a woman doing this job. If you look at the history of the investing space, it has been not only dominated, but filled with men.
Experience as a Woman in Finance
00:36:54
Speaker
And so previous practices just spilled over to today, very, male centric, but there have been incredible women who have been in the investment space here in Africa over the, you know, before my time and who I look up to and emulate a lot.
00:37:14
Speaker
There weren't many. i think they're growing now, now that I'm a managing partner at Unconventional Capital, I'm able to see there's enough other partners on this continent that I'm able to call and um create sort of like a sisterhood with to be able to bounce back and forth certain key issues that only sometimes women can be able to address each other about.
00:37:37
Speaker
There's still a lot that needs to be changed because like i said, there's a spillover in terms of how things are done and how things are viewed. But I find that today we have so many more voices.
00:37:49
Speaker
When you go to conferences, there's very many women investors on panels, Well, those conferences that are intentional about making sure that the voices are represented, there's some that are still archaic and you still have manuals on those ones. I'm not talking about those ones.
00:38:05
Speaker
We're seeing online, very powerful, strong voices. We're seeing female-led funds on the continent. Raising and leading a fund on this continent incredible. It's extra special. It's extra difficult for very many reasons.
00:38:22
Speaker
Societal expectations, that you know, a lot of sacrifices you make, you have to break barriers to be able to unlock that capital. There's so many meaning things, moving parts. And so when I see female fund managers, i get really excited.
00:38:37
Speaker
And we're seeing them even becoming younger and younger coming into the industry and managing funds, having senior positions, you know, very many investment directors who women and they're local.
00:38:49
Speaker
And so it's an exciting time. It's an exciting time to be a female fund manager. And hopefully that even inspires more and more women to join the industry as time goes by.
00:39:01
Speaker
But I just need to make sure that, you know, I have a mechanical engineering background. So for me, you know it has always been being in the center of this male-centric industries and just, you know, stamping my foot and, you know, making sure that I'm visible and seen and have more women who are sort of like joining. And so I think I might tough skin, but don't think in the future tough skin will be needed if we keep doing what we're doing the moment.
00:39:30
Speaker
Yes, absolutely. I also want to know, you were just telling me about how busy life can get with so many entrepreneurs that you work with and different responsibilities, small team.
00:39:45
Speaker
What helps you be your best self? but It's like the hard questions came at the end of the podcast,
Balancing Work with Personal Practices
00:39:52
Speaker
Christina. Yeah. Being my best self, I think, is I have created a routine.
00:39:59
Speaker
i think I'm a creature of habit and the habits that I have instilled in my daily practices and my weekly practices are what keep me sane, I would say.
00:40:09
Speaker
Some of the things I do, no questions asked is over the, for the past 10 years, every Tuesday evening, I have choir practice. I'm part of a pop choir, right?
00:40:20
Speaker
And I've been part of the pop choir for 10 years plus. And then as of last year, I joined improv, I started doing improv. And so that has been really good to get myself out of my mind, especially because you have to like be present and be be spontaneous on the spot.
00:40:39
Speaker
And so I started doing that in April of 2024. And so that has been one of the more challenging things in my life for very many reasons.
00:40:50
Speaker
And I started doing like shows, improv shows earlier this year. So i was just going for the classes last year, but then this year I started doing a few shows. And so that has been interesting. And then on the fitness side, I found that to be mentally strong, you have to be physically strong. And so I hike a lot. I am an avid cyclist.
00:41:12
Speaker
I had injured myself last year. I'd fractured my shoulder and cracked three ribs. Okay. but all healed now, as you can see, and back on my bicycle.
00:41:24
Speaker
I like to tell people that cycling in Nairobi is an extreme sport. And so sometimes I cycle to the office as well, commutes, navigates these Nairobi streets. And so all these things I have found, they're good for the mind and the body. And then they contribute to making sure that I am at a hundred percent when I'm working and I'm able to give my best.
00:41:46
Speaker
and And know your last question for all your shows is around books. So books are also something that keep me sort opened new worlds and open, know, keep me sort like ah entertained and happy.
00:42:00
Speaker
Do you have a recommendation of book? Many. What are you reading right now? Oh, that's a good question. Actually,
Esther's Reading Recommendation and Optimism
00:42:08
Speaker
i have it. It is by the this Tanzania author who got the Pulitzer the other day, Abdul Razak Gurnaf. So i'm reading his book called Theft.
00:42:22
Speaker
oh It was actually a gift from a good friend of mine. but She's like, I know you will like this. Also because i I was reading a very, very heavy book before this.
00:42:33
Speaker
and So this is nice, a very nice and light to read at the moment. Yeah. So I recommend it as well. Great. Thank you. So we're approaching the end of the the episode.
00:42:44
Speaker
What's keeping you optimistic? What's keeping me optimistic? The mission, being able to support founders who are creating amazing, amazing projects.
00:42:55
Speaker
solutions for the societies that we live in. So being a part of their journey is incredibly optimistic. It just brings so much positive, let me use my daughter's words, vibes The mission, the work that we do, the team that I have, I have an incredible team. have to shout out the team who I just got into a step challenge. so we're trying to, we're all competing on who makes the most steps in a day.
00:43:27
Speaker
The team keeps me ah optimistic as well. And think we're just living in a time that will define the future of Africa. It's been challenging. I mean, depending on the conversation you have, if you look at sort of like the macro factors, you know, we're seeing that There's some geopolitical shifts that is pulling very much needed catalytic capital away from the continent.
00:43:51
Speaker
But the optimistic part is seeing the solutions that are coming up. Africa has always been very resilient. We've always had a way to sort of like think on our feet and figure out how to, how do we solve this and how do we move on from this?
00:44:04
Speaker
And so that for me is also something keeps me very optimistic. Amazing. Who or what is inspiring you? I told you these questions of yours just keep getting hard.
00:44:16
Speaker
No, this is very simple. i get inspired by the founders that we meet. And I told you meet them on a daily basis. You meet a founder who will tie in their personal story.
00:44:29
Speaker
And in any normal circumstance, that should have put them down. I met this last week. I was in was in Rwanda and I i attended the Jasiri Talent Investor Program.
00:44:43
Speaker
They have this three-month... session away from people figuring out what solutions do they want. So young people who are figuring out what solutions do they want to impact and what kind of businesses do they want to build.
00:44:56
Speaker
And I sat down and talked to people who talked about the challenges their parents faced with diabetes, for instance, or this doctor who has seen So many little boys undergo the wrong procedure for circumcision Ethiopia. And so they have this gadget that they're putting together that will be affordable and you know scalable across Ethiopia.
00:45:22
Speaker
Let me tell you, when you sit with founders and you hear the solutions and the the thinking through it, not being discouraged by circumstance, you know, and just figuring out how to beat challenges and saying, I will be the one to solve this.
00:45:37
Speaker
Nothing is more inspiring than that, Krisztina. I can assure you you of that. Amazing. Thank you. Thank you so much, Esther. Do you have any final thoughts or advice for fellow changemakers or any specific ask of the listeners?
00:45:51
Speaker
Well, one, to keep listening to your podcast. I promise I have not been paid to say that. I would say that in an ever-changing world, there's a lot that could discourage us, right?
00:46:04
Speaker
The playbook keeps changing. You know, you wake up and you're like, oh, this has changed as well. What do we do? that lada My encouragement is to continue thinking yourself of yourselves as change makers. So change is part of your your identity and your brand.
00:46:18
Speaker
And so be ready to continue building the next era of whatever change comes your way and work in collaboration with other change makers. Nothing can be done on your own or by yourself.
00:46:30
Speaker
Thank you. This was such an amazing conversation. Thank you so much, Esther, for your time today. and yeah, i wish you a beautiful weekend and hope to see you somewhere soon.
00:46:41
Speaker
Thank you, Krisztina Goodbye.
00:46:48
Speaker
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00:47:00
Speaker
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00:47:11
Speaker
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00:47:26
Speaker
Women Changing Finance is part of the Impact Alpha podcast network. Smart conversations by and for impact investing professionals.