The company’s vision is to reach every farmer and achieve one chicken per person per year in each country where it operates.
Hatch Africa’s vision is to make farmers healthier and wealthier. AgDevCo invested $6.5m in mezzanine financing alongside IDH Farmfit Fund to scale Hatch’s innovative business model of distributing dual-purpose breeds of day-old-chicks to millions of smallholder farmer households. The investment is into Flow Equity Africa Ventures (FEAV), the holding company for Hatch’s operations in Kenya, Ghana, and Cote d’Ivoire.
AgDevCo has supported Hatch with TA for digitalisation through development of a customer ordering app and field team app, with an online learning platform for the sales team as well as extensive village trainings targeting agents (who buy day-old-chicks from Hatch Africa) and smallholder farmers (who buy month-old-chicks from agents) to build their capacity on good poultry practices and reduce chick mortalities. This includes train-the-trainer for Hatch Africa's sales team (who will train the agents/smallholder farmers) as well as external consultant support from veterinary specialists to train Hatch Africa’s technical field team. This project covers all six countries: Ethiopia, Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya, Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire.
Hatch has also benefitted from TA support to improve and strengthen the group’s governance structure (business integrity training and new external audit and risk committee member), financial systems and processes/controls (in particular for Uzima Rwanda), and internal ESG practices (harmonise ESG approach across the group).
Further, Hatch is participating in a TA programme involving an external specialist to design and develop a job quality framework and tool for AgDevCo to undertake decent work/job quality assessments with the company. Together with the external consultant, the company will develop costed action plans based on the results of the assessment and in line with the company's strategy.
Hatch Africa: A sub-Saharan Africa leader in distribution of dual-purpose day-old-chicks. AgDevCo’s investment will allow the company to expand its high impact business model across East and West Africa. The company’s vision is to reach every farmer and achieve one chicken per person per year in each country where it operates.
| Investment | Total invested | Start date |
|---|---|---|
| East Africa Magical Farms | $8,600,000 | 2023 |
| Hatch Africa | $6,500,000 | 2024 |