Kanini Mutooni of the Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation sat down for the RootsToFoods Capital Series and walked through the journey of one Kenyan cold-chain company, from the moment DRK wrote its first check all the way to the point where the business could stand on its own financially. It is a single story, but it carries the weight of a much bigger question: why are there not ten more companies just like it?
That question is exactly what Dr. Frank Aswani of the African Venture Philanthropy Alliance is trying to answer. In the same interview series, he breaks down what conditions, structures, and mindset shifts would need to be in place for cold-chain businesses across the continent to replicate that kind of trajectory. The conversation moves quickly from inspiration to mechanics.
The headline that runs through both perspectives is sharp and worth sitting with: Africa is not short of money. It is short of risk capital. Patient, early-stage funding that tolerates uncertainty long enough for a business to find its footing is still remarkably rare, even as the continent's food systems desperately need it.
The cold-chain sector is a telling example. Getting perishable food from farm to market without spoilage is one of the most solvable problems in African food security, and yet the financing models to support it remain underdeveloped. What DRK did for one company in Kenya is a proof of concept, not yet a pattern.
The real conversation, the one Dr. Aswani is pushing, is about what it takes to turn a proof of concept into standard practice across markets from Nairobi to Lagos to Accra. That answer is still being written.
Originally published by AllAfrica.