Investor Profile: Why We Work with DOB Equity
At Pangea, our goal is to provide access to competence, network and capital to African entrepreneurs. We are always on the lookout for amazing founders and co-founders solving some of the continent’s biggest challenges in urbanization. In order to do this, we seek like-minded experts to collaborate and partner with especially impact investors. One of our partner investors is DOB Equity. We had a candid conversation with Maina Murage, Investment Analyst at DOB Equity to understand better what they do and highlight what interesting opportunities they see in the sector.
Tell us a little bit about DOB Equity
DOB Equity Is a Dutch family office that focuses on investments in East Africa. We invest in businesses that positively contribute to a more social and sustainable society and deliver long-term profitability. We work with entrepreneurs to mitigate potential risks related to environmental, social and governance matters, whilst creating value and social impact for the company and its communities.
We work from our offices in Kenya, Tanzania and The Netherlands. DOB Equity is an evergreen fund with all proceeds from investments being reinvested, making DOB Equity a true long-term growth partner for its portfolio companies.
Where do you see investment opportunities in Africa i.e. big opportunities and/or those that are exciting?
Our focus has been on companies solving problems in three thematic areas: Urbanization, Food Security and Youth Employment. We believe these are large problems in Africa that require unique solutions to solve them.
This also opens us up to investing in a diverse set of industries instead of being limited to a few. Recent exiting investments have been in Plastics recycling under the Urbanization theme (Mr. Green Africa) and in improving the successful transition of the youth into the workforce under the youth Employment theme (Moringa School).
Why do you work with ecosystem players like Pangea?
Start-up ecosystems work best when the stakeholders collaborate rather than operating in their own silos. We like working with Pangea, for example because they give us access to promising companies early on in their entrepreneurial journey. We often may not be able to invest in them quite yet but building those relationships over time ensures that later on we are well positioned to invest. We also feel that when investors work with incubators and accelerators, alignment can be achieved on what are the characteristics of companies we value.
