Episode 175 - Marks on the Markets: The Risk, Return, and Rewards for Investing in Africa
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In this episode of the Faith Driven Investor podcast, Richard sits down with Henry Kaestner and Andrew Firman about the returns, rewards, and risks involved in investing in Africa.
They discuss the opportunities and challenges of investing in the continent, the importance of spiritual integration in business, and the potential for economic development in Africa.
They also highlight specific examples of innovative solutions being developed by African entrepreneurs to address real problems in the region. The conversation emphasizes the need for mentorship and support for African founders and encourages faith-driven investors to consider investing in Africa.
All opinions expressed on this podcast, including the team and guests, are solely their opinions. Host and guests may maintain positions in the companies and securities discussed. This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as specific investment advice for any individual or organization.
Episode Transcript
Richard: You're listening to Fate Driven Investor, a podcast that highlights voices from a growing movement of Christ following investors who believe that God owns it all and cares deeply about the heart posture behind our stewardship. Thanks for listening.
Rusty: Hey everyone! All opinions expressed on this podcast, including the team and guests, are solely their opinions. Host and guests may maintain positions in the companies of securities discussed, and this podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as specific investment advice for any individual or organization. Thanks for listening.
Richard: Welcome everyone to another episode of the Faith Driven Investor podcast. A joy to have you with us from whenever and wherever you're getting this July 1st, 2024 marks on the markets episode of the Faith Driven Investor podcast. I'm Richard Cunningham, wonderful to have you with us. And all of you know, as our investor audience that we typically in Mark's on the markets look at predominantly US public equities when we do this. And we're taking a little trip across the pond today, deviating from the markets we normally look at. And we're going to a continent that we have a deep passion and love for here in the FDI ecosystem, none more than our two guests here. And it's the continent of Africa. And so we've got Henry Kissinger on to provide a little color commentary. And Andrew Furman, who runs Clio Ventures. Gentlemen, welcome onto the pod.
Andrew: Thanks for having us.
Henry: So good to be here, Richard.
Richard: Yeah. And I should say, welcome back, as you guys are both mainstays and great friends across this movement, have been trailblazers across the movement, and a lot of the work you're doing right now is trailblazing in the continent of Africa. So let's start there. As we get into this episode, where did that passion for Africa start in both of you? Andrew, we'll start with you.
Andrew: You know, it's a great question. I always sort of joke, if you would have told me five, six years ago, this is what I would have been doing, I probably would have chuckled it. It wouldn't have quite made sense. The journey for me, and I think probably to Henry to some extent, because we've been on this together, even though he's been on it longer than I have, is it really kind of came up as a really natural need that we saw in terms of capital mix with just some really incredible founders and people that we were meeting. I think a lot of this, and I know we'll touch on this a bit later, but I think there are a lot of misconceptions people have that I had as well. And just, you know, early on and in that faith driven investor and faith driven entrepreneur journey, just meeting more and more and more specifically, I would say tech founders in Africa. And you walk away from these conversations thinking, this is not what I thought. This is incredibly awesome. Somebody needs to back them. So the really cool part of the journey for me is that it was incredibly unexpected, very natural, very iterative. And here we are.
Richard: That's awesome. Henry, what about you? I feel like you're kind of the John the Baptist for the continent of Africa, within the faith driven investing space. And so maybe give us a little of the background and color for your passion for the continent.
Henry: Oh gosh. Well, it sounds like a great thing to say. The reality, of course, is that the body of Christ has been here in Africa for hundreds of years, both on the missionary side, but to build hospitals and schools and and even business to. And while some of the legacy has been clouded by the extraction element, exploitation element of a lot of people that have gone into the marketplace in Africa, there have been some wonderful people and some amazing people on the continent that have been investing in faith driven entrepreneurs for decades. And yet there is, I think, though, I think you're speaking of something that collectively, the body of Christ, primarily in the West, is starting to pay attention to it a bit more. And I think that we're all kind of looking in emerging markets a little bit differently over the last 4 or 5 years. I think part of it is God removing the scales from our eyes to look at the rest of the world and realize that there's 7.5 billion people who do not live in America. And that is we look at stories like and Bible, as you see on the parable of the Good Samaritan, we just realize that our neighbor is not necessarily the person living next door, but around the world. And realizing that God had worked through my career to help me to understand that there's a lot of joy and a lot of productivity that can come from investing in emerging markets. We started an investment fund about 13 years ago, and seven of our first ten investments were in Jakarta and Singapore, and they were very, very successful both in terms of spiritual integration but also in terms of alpha. And that helped me to understand that there are great opportunities to invest with excellence overseas. And so when I went to Africa five years ago, six years ago, for the first time in a long time, I really think that God told me that all of the things that I've been doing up until then were in preparation to learning how to do investing and entrepreneurship with excellence. But bringing me to Africa and it's given me great joy. Yeah, I love talking about it.
Richard: It's awesome. And Andrew, why is it an investing approach as opposed to something like philanthropy or government work or NGO work, which is all exceptionally meaningful, as Henry was just talking about great believers being on the ground in Africa. But why investing in your specific approach?
Andrew: Yeah, it's a really good question. So let me just say at the outset, there's a wonderful place for both philanthropy and charity, government aid, all of that. There's natural disaster. We want to get people food. We want to get people water. We think the data is pretty clear that aid, whether it's government, philanthropy, charity in the wrong area, can substantially harm economic development. And we think we've got a couple decades worth of data to show that in Africa, but also other places as well. So our heart for investing is we want to see that economic development. We think that a lot of the other aid and philanthropy are very helpful and needed Band-Aids. But we can't just keep giving Band-Aids to Africa. We actually have to give that capital to see it take a step in terms of economic development. I think there's another question within there as well, which is we're. Really excited about venture, specifically because we think that a lot of cases, I don't know if we think Africa's going to grow in the same pattern that other places have, but for us, venture is being able to bring really innovative and a lot of times new solutions and ways of doing things to very real problems. And so we look at investing to say if we want a long term change trajectory of Africa and actually see people grow no longer dependent on that aid, that's what we think is a solution, is investing in the continent.
Richard: Henry, what might you add to that?
Henry: So I'm fascinated by the relationship between dignity and dependency. And I can think about a number of different times in my life where I've been given things and I can be grateful, but also a number of things where God's allowed me to have opportunities to really to innovate and create and get out there and take chances and fail and and to do well. And it's been that iterative creative process where I've really felt like I've come alive in my faith, and I really felt like I've been able to make a contribution to society. And I think that it's given me the right type of pride, a sense that God might use me, and that by going through a journey with him and taking chances in employing people and making a service and testing it out in the market, well, it allows me to feel like I'm in a place to be able to help lead the transformation in whatever marketplace or whatever industry has put me in. But what makes an entrepreneur? How does an entrepreneur thrive? How do you do the helping on the teaching? Well, part of it is the job skills, and there's some incredible organizations that help teach entrepreneurial skills. All throughout the canon, I think about snap and I think about trigger, but capital and the Holy Spirit are the fuel that allow veteran entrepreneur to thrive. And when you can come alongside somebody and be strapped to the mast with them by putting skin in the game. I'm mixing too many metaphors, but you follow me. But being in it with an entrepreneur and like, I know that you've got this vision and we've talked about how you might think about product market fit, we've talked about how you might think about intellectual property or supply chain. And I know that you want to go out there and you want to hire some people, and you want to develop some channels to market, and you're going to need some capital to do that. And I'm in it with you. That's a powerful bond. There's something about putting in the fuel that symbolically says, you know, beyond the training that I gave you, I'm in it. I'm going to go ahead and take something that's near to me and dear to me that I'm stewarding and throw in with you the encouragement and the wind in the sails that that gives to an entrepreneur is amazing. It's the way that God created us to be in community. And I think there's something really special. We do that, and to be clear, that's best done when it's multifaceted, when you're able to come into a deal together with local capital. Right. It's oftentimes a bad recipe. When we go ahead and we have money, we're coming in from the West. We find an entrepreneur in Africa. They win us over from their heart story. And we come in and and we invest in them. A lot of times that doesn't go super well because at some point in time, their vice president of finance is going to leave, and then they need a new one, right? The local capital, they comes in at equal terms to us, is going to be able to help them to get a new vice president of finance or to make the introduction of the customer that they need. But the capital that we come in with, and maybe some of the experience we have in a different type of market can add value to. And so it's just kind of it's a mix. It's a bunch of different things that allow for the entrepreneur to feel like I've got partners that have got my back that are praying for me, that are in it with me. I've got local partners, I got partners from overseas, and now I've got the momentum to get out there and do all that God has given me to do.
Richard: It's well said. And then when you think about Africa from a just general tailwinds perspective and kind of from a demographic 30,000 foot view markets perspective, I've heard both of you kind of make the case for Africa demographically, whether it's the population size and age and just everything that's taking place on the continent. Unpack a little bit of that more, because there's truly a passion here for the redemptive and the financial alpha side of faith driven investing in Africa. But there's also, just from a good business sense, almost economic case for Africa as well.
Andrew: Yeah, it's a great question. So, you know, at the outset, let me give a quick sort of definition of what we practically see as venture capital in Africa. I think a lot of times in the US, we're specifically thinking of, you know, advanced software, whatever that I SAS, whatever that might be. And to some extent, yes, it's there in Africa. I don't think we are going to see a lot of, you know, homegrown new AI type products out of Africa. That's not exactly what we see. My definition of a venture capital investments a little bit simpler, which is something that can take on a rocket like growth trajectory. And so with that in mind, when we look at what we've seen be successful in Africa, I think there's a little bit of a difference with the US, where in the US some of venture, not all is kind of nice to have products, right? Even thinking about ChatGPT incredibly useful to me. I probably use more AI tools and a lot of other people, but I'm using that with a. Over my head with access to food. I have the necessities already in Africa. A lot of the deals we've seen successful on the venture side are ones that are solving a core problem. So food access, last mile delivery, things like that. So going to your question, Richard, I view it as a couple things. There is a long list of tailwinds, whether it's demographics, even tech penetration, smartphone adoption, all of that's there. But I also think the other aspect that makes venture specifically very attractive, and I mean this from a tailwinds perspective, is there's still a lot of problems in Africa. So we took a couple investors out there a few months ago. And I think one of the eye opening things for them was we were in a country in West Africa. And as we were driving from the airport to the hotel, they were seeing these local informal markets. And you're kind of looking at all this and at the infrastructure or lack of it and thinking, well, how can venture exist here? But then you sort of have this moment of a really amazing tech founder that understands venture, looks at this is a glass half full mentality. There is a problem to be solved. And if we can do that in a commercially viable way, the world is our oyster. But also we're going to be able to help a lot of people. So I think when when people hear my case for it, I think there are a lot of times surprised to hear me put there are a lot of problems that need to be solved on that list of tailwinds. But that's what we think. We think there are a lot of great things in its favor, and the fact that there are opportunities we think are going to be solved by innovative solutions. That's where venture comes in.
Henry: Yeah, and I think that's important. Also, when you talk about venture, let's talk about what we think of when we think of the African entrepreneur until 5 or 6 years ago. And this is gonna sound wrong because it is wrong. I thought of the African entrepreneur as somebody that's making handicrafts, making oven mitts, and helping disadvantaged people to learn how to diversify their income by, again, making handicrafts. Or I thought about Fairtrade coffee, or I thought about mining or things like that. I had no idea about what was going on in fintech or software as a service and how Africa now it's got 20 or 30 years of a legacy of jumping over traditional legacy telecommunications banking. You think about some of the best financial apps in the world have their origin in Africa. You think about Android, what is it? 5 or 6 unicorns have come out of the continent of Africa. There's an innovative, particularly in West Africa. There's an innovative aspect to their culture, and then there's this financial need that has helped them create different products, which actually their marketplaces are ahead of what we have in America. And that's continuing on. And one of the things that we're seeing now is, is just seeing more and more African technologies. And that's why you've got unicorns coming out of Africa. You couple that with the fact that you're going to have twice as many people in Africa, because the average age in Africa is 19, with the fact that they are having massive economic development, many of their economies are growing at a rate faster than the United States. You bring all those things together, the innovative culture, the size of the market, the speed at which it's growing. And you've got this cocktail for great financial returns from venture at lower valuations. And you'd find in the United States, which has lower growth rates and a different type of product base. And so that's exciting. You couple that with the fact that, well, clearly the West has gotten bigger market. You're starting to see downstream opportunities for liquidity. So when you come into a deal and see a deal or an aid deal, maybe ten, 15 years ago, the market wasn't mature enough to a place where you could really see where acquisitions would come in, or there could be a B round or C round. But increasingly, you're starting to see that because strategic in America are looking at Africa and seeing the market size and saying, you know what? We've been duking it out with people for market share here in the West for quite some time. Let's go to where the market's getting bigger and where it's getting more prosperous, and where there's more capital to buy the products and services online through the apps and the marketplaces and people coming to Africa.
Richard: What about from a risk standpoint, guys, because so Kaleo Ventures has a portfolio of 30 plus ventures, and just you guys are off to an incredibly hot start. Henry, I know on your own, you've also done a number of deals in Africa, whether it be through funds or with other faith driven entrepreneurs. When you're talking to LPs and people are just you're talking about Africa in the case and you're making a number of the point you're making right now, I got to think they're just like, hey, this frontier market is probably has so much risk. How do you approach that conversation? How do you get someone to kind of from all of like the demographics you've pointed out in the possibilities, but how do you kind of get them warmed up to the idea of like, hey, there is a legitimate economic viability here?
Andrew: Yeah, it's a really good question. You know? And one of the funny things for me is I think people are surprised where a lot of times in conversations with anyone who's curious about Africa, they've got a list of ten things that scare them and it's foreign currency. It's all that. And I think people are expecting me to have a really good argument for why their view of economics is wrong, or that geopolitical. And it's only not that I normally respond yes to most of the risk they face where I push is, I think sometimes we complicate some of the basic tenets of investing. If we can think back to what it is seventh grade, eighth grade algebra, and we think about, you know, probability weighted outcomes or it's, you know, the parentheses. Are expected return. That's what investing is. And I think a lot of times we forget that most of what we consider risk, which I put in quotes because I don't always know what people mean when they talk about the risk. Most of it is just basic math, which means we can tweak some of the inputs and get a different output. Like one example I normally give is. A lot of times I'll talk to people who view Africa only as concessionary and they do equity investing. In my mind, that's a math problem. I'll ignore dilution and a lot of other of the complications here. But like, let's assume that your average entry valuation for a company is $10 million and you say you're a concessionary fund because maybe you're returning a net IRR of like 10%. That's not the company's problem that you're investing. It's not the portfolio company. If you have that valuation that you get in that $5 million entry, your return profile looks very different. Now, a lot of other considerations with minimum check size, maximum all that. But the bottom line for me is risk is really a math problem. If you gave me a $10 million valuation US deal. Same deal in Africa for ten. My case isn't that we do the deal in Africa. We wouldn't. The question I have is at what level of valuation does that become attractive if you bring that $10 million deal in Africa down to eight to 6 to 4 to 2 to 1 at some level, as an investor, you go, okay, even though there are these ten risks we don't see in the US, man, it's attractive at a $2 million valuation. So our main pitches, we think investors tend to view risk in a binary fashion. The US is not risky. Africa is risky. But we forget that Warren Buffett aphorism that you can find a great company that makes an awful investment. That's how we view it. Risk is not binary. There are ways to structure around it, and a lot of it is based on the valuation that you find.
Henry: Okay. I love that I think that's right on. But I'm going to go ahead and look at it from a little bit of a different angle. My biggest risk is getting up to heaven. And God is like look you knew there seven half billion people didn't live in America. And you knew that when you gave a cup of cold water and in the name of Jesus, you took care of the poor. Those are the different types of things that pleased me. And since you knew was my capital all together, who told you that it was all about building up a bigger pile of capital so that you could either hand it on to next generation, or give it away, because you knew intellectually that giving it away wasn't always the best way to lift people out of financial spiritual poverty. So my risk is at the end when I get up there and I'm called into account now, I think that the interview is going to go great because we have a loving God who loves us, and yet we know that there's going to be some level of accounting about what we did while we're on Earth and beyond that. And because that sounds too fear based, I right now want to experience his joy as I steward his capital. My greatest risk is that I live this existence where I just have index funds, and just the things that might seem to make sense on a risk adjusted return by just staying in America. And I live this plain vanilla life in a way that's black and white, and I miss the technicolor, beautiful tapestry of investing in these different economies. And yes, with excellence in a way that you can get return. But I get down on my knees and I ask God how I might steward his capital. Where might I deploy his capital through the experiences he's given me in a way that advances his kingdom the most, I have to change my paradigm about how I think about risk now. I think as we do that, we might find that we might get great return in terms of financial return. And I think that we can invest with biblical values and make great returns, not at the expense of biblical values, but because of them. And fortunately, that's worked well in Southeast Asia and thus far in Africa. But the greater risk for me, the greater risk is God saying, listen, I give you all this opportunity, all this capital of steward. And you knew that the marketplace was going to double in Africa. You knew that investing in entrepreneurs and then entrepreneurs were cultural change agents. You knew all of these things, but you just elected just to do it where it was safe. Man, I just don't want it to go down like that. And so at same time, I don't want to preach or force anybody to invest in Africa, in my experience. So it just getting down my knees and like, God, how would I do this? And I felt him calling me to do that as a big part of what I do. But the listeners to this might go through that same exercise. Lord, how would you have me steward your capital? I just listen this crazy podcast guess you kept on telling me about Africa is the place to be. Lord, if you want me to go there and to investigate it and look at the different funds that are out there and look at their assets under management, look at their track records, look at their spiritual integration, and whether they indeed are moving the needle in the way the marketplace is set up. If you lead me there, find me faithful. If instead you have me to invest in faith driven investing in real estate in America, lead me there. But allow me to experience your joy now while I allocate your capital, and allow me to just be faithful and obedient to what you'd have me do.
Richard: So maybe let's get into specifics of some of these stories pulling color for us a little bit. So. This episode releases on July 1st, 2024. We're recording it on Friday, June 21st. Andrew Henry, you're hopping on a plane and going to Africa tomorrow, so talk to me about some of the entrepreneurs, the folks. You get to go see some of these. Henry, you've used the word spiritual integration a number of times now, as you guys invest specifically in faith driven entrepreneurs. Tell us some of the stories and some of more captivating things that you've seen.
Andrew: Yeah, I'd love to. So, you know, going back to what I said about some of the really good venture founders we find in Africa are ones that are tackling something that is a problem that would cause people not to invest in Africa. So one of the common ones we hear is, well, how can there be economic development when there's not consistent access to the power grid, right. And so we've got two startups that I absolutely love. One of them is focused on, you know, it's a it's a software solution that helps utility providers minimize grid loss. And with some of the initial pilots they ran, you know, they're a couple of years past launch now. But average on grid time went up by about 35 or 40%. So if you think of the working day and you're adding 35 or 40% of power to the working day, the economic benefit of that is massive. And so again, it's this glass half full mentality. Yes. Lack of access to power is a huge problem in Africa, but a really good, innovative founder is going to find a way to fix that. We've got another one that, you know, for a lot of places in Africa, solar is actually probably one of the best solutions. It's incredibly cost effective. And it's also very dependable because a lot of these rural areas especially, or even some of the urban areas, there's some of the at the mercy of the grid, which ties into governments. Have they been efficient with funds, all of that. So to be able to essentially have your own grid through solar is massive. But the upfront cost of solar is very prohibitive to actual adoption. So we've got a company that is essentially a credit or financing plug. So kind of a mix of fintech and climate tech. And those are the kind of solutions that we think are great. They adapt well to the context in Africa. If they're successful, they're going to help an incredible number of people, but they're trying to do this in a commercially viable way. So those are the types of solutions we see as identifying a real problem in Africa. They're thinking, how can we think through a new innovative solution to cover that. And so we just continually meet with founders. We don't invest in everyone we meet unfortunately. But you know, I think everyone we meet with, we just love this passion and this energy of, you know, whether it's the continent as a whole or in most cases, it's their country that they love and they want to see and grow, and they're just trying to think through really new, cool ways to solve very real problems.
Henry: Yeah, well, I'm glad that you don't invest in everyone that you see. I think that a good venture portfolio invest in a distinct minority. So I think the selectivity that you and other managers have there is really, really important. But I want to also introduce a different paradigm. And I semi conscious of the fact I'm getting all preachy on this podcast. I don't think that that sells podcast very well, but there's a working theory of change that I have when I think about the alleviation of financial and spiritual poverty in Africa, that I think is really compelling for me. And it's twofold. One is that when you think about spiritual integration, because that's the other thing, like, so we talk about risk. We've unpack that a little bit, some nuance. And I think that Andrew looking because he is he's a fiduciary manager to deliver and wants to be a top quartile fund to deliver great financial return. That's his job. And he does that. And that's important. And I looked at risk from a little bit of a different level as an LP in his fund about how I get excited about what it looks like to come alongside these men and women of their faith as they look to be a blessing on their community. And one of the things that is really just captivating me, and has allowed me to experience more joy in my investing in Africa, is that when I sit down with an entrepreneur in Africa and I meet some of Andrew's portfolio or some of the portfolio companies of the other funds we've invested in, they get spiritual integration in the fact that they can bring their whole selves to work into the marketplace every day. Somewhat of a foreign concept here in the United States, when you work with a feature, an entrepreneur in America, you have to help them to come along to understand that their work matters to God, and that being a Christ follower means that you can share your faith when someone in your story, when somebody in the marketplace, you can pray for people in Jesus's name. These are all things that are counterintuitive to a Western entrepreneur that is trying to throw off the vestiges of an evangelical Gnosticism. What in the world does that mean? Well, you know, a lot of us in the missions world will know that you can go to a place where they formerly had animist beliefs, and then they convert to Christianity. You go to their churches and it's kind of this mix up of just, you know, kind of some of the animist traditions and then the new Christian ones. It's called syncretism. And it's easy for us from the West to be able to see that and say, that's really weird, and that's messed up, and it is. And yet we're unconscious of the same type of syncretism we have here in the United States, and that is that we come out of the Greek belief. Gnostics were early heretics, but it was just the way that things happened in the agora, in the Greek marketplace. The Greeks believed in a separation between the secular and the spiritual, and we have exacerbated that. And that ends up being the case today. And you don't see that in the Bible. You see Lydia, you see Paul. You see Priscilla and Aquila, you see these people bringing their faith into the marketplace in a way that was just inclusive. Well, we have to realize that because we come from the Greek tradition, we have those challenges. They don't have that in Africa. In Africa, the traditional faith traditions are that if you have a problem with your business, you go to the witchdoctor and he gives you an idol to put in the store window, or he gives you a powder sprinkle over your competitors products. When they come to Christ, they haven't come out of that type of background. And of course their work matters in the spiritual world. They have no problem praying with people in Jesus's name. They have no problem talking about their story. We don't have to talk about the integration, about being a blessing, making a redemptive product and service, loving on their partners, vendors, customers in place. That becomes intuitive and the next thing that happens, and this is one of the things that Andrew and I are going to be spending some time with, with some of these companies next week, is that as they integrate their faith and they become more generous and they understand that God owns it all. They're in a great spot to go on boards of ministries and orphanages in the villages they came from, and to love on the people in an expanding marketplace. Nigeria has 210, 220 million people going to 400 million. The people are going to have the best idea about how to come up with the right type of new systems for adoption, or foster care or church planning are going to come from this entrepreneurial class. They're going to be coming in with their own financial money, their own resources, their time, their resources, and then inviting us to come along side with them. So sometimes I wrestle with. You know, we're investing all these fintech entrepreneurs, many of whom are Western educated. And is that really going to be enough to lift people out of poverty in these villages? Because that's a big passion of mine. Well, I think that part of the answer is understanding that since entrepreneurs are the cultural change agents and continents in emerging markets like Africa, that if we can come along with them and give them an alternate sense of what success looks like from the financial success that they will have, what does that look like? And instead of going ahead and buying a flat in Kensington or sending their kids to Eton or Deerfield or Phillips Exeter for them to instead understand that God owns the financial resources that will come out of their business, and to pour that back in to their countries that they know the culture of. That's what gets me really fired up.
Richard: Henry, why are you talking about those specific countries? I think it'd be helpful to do this real quickly. Where are you guys focus currently from? Like, a specific country standpoint. And are there differences? Kind of. Africa is a massive place, like in kind of what you're seeing in West Africa versus East Africa, and where kind of some of your focuses.
Henry: Well, Andrew should answer that for his find a clue from a family office perspective. We've invested in funds in East Africa, in South Africa and then in West Africa. I may have a special place in my heart for West Africa, because the dynamism of the marketplace and just there's a creativity and innovation of entrepreneurs there that's really compelling. But there are great opportunities to invest in entrepreneurs all over emerging markets and in Africa, pretty much in every sector.
Andrew: You know, and I would agree with what Henry said. You know, on our thesis, we are technically a Pan Africa fund, so we're one of the few we can actually do North Africa as well, even though, to be clear, we haven't. I think a lot of times, you know, we've done a lot of investing in East Africa. So some in Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, South Africa, Latin Nigeria. The one clarification I normally make is I think especially when Western Christians talk about Africa, they tend to say Kenya and Nigeria in the same sense. And I just try to remind people Kenya is just over 50 million people, Nigeria's 220. So yes, again, very developed countries. We've got some great portfolio companies. Kenya. We love Kenya. Nigeria is big. And when you think about, any kind of venture backed company to have a captive market that's four times bigger without having to go cross-border is a very big deal. So we are pan Africa and probably with deals in 12 or 15 countries. But, really West Africa for us is a good additional focus to have just because, again, it's just such a larger population to some extent, a little bit more untapped. I think that a lot of the DFI and some of the more impact focused money for a lot of good reasons has centered on East Africa. The UN's there, there's some easier entry points. And so to some extent, West Africa is a little bit more untapped. And as Henry said, in some ways we just see a little bit more of an innovative approach to problems because they really haven't had the capital access in the past. And so their only option is finding something different that's market compatible.
Richard: Well said. Thanks for explaining that. That's probably a good point to plug if you're a faith driven investor out there. Curious about frontier emerging markets, Africa specifically, whatever it might be, there are faith driven investor groups designed to go focus on specific geographies. I feel like I mean, I want to plug in, explore West Africa, East Africa or Southeast Asia, what have you. There are ways to plug in to the FDI kind of community and ecosystem with that geographic lens, alongside other faith driven investors who are passionate about a particular area. All right, gents, last question. And then I want to hear about what the Lord's been teaching you in his word. And we'll wrap this thing. But I'm a faith driven investor listening to this podcast, and I'm still kind of wondering, man, like, it just feels like the investment minimums would be so large to go into Africa and make a change or just I'm not there yet. Like, I can't hop on a plane reasonably like the two of you and go to Africa tomorrow and things of that nature. What all opportunities as you think about the continent, are there beyond maybe just capital or what is kind of that final thing you'd like to kind of encourage someone with or leave with them?
Andrew: It's such a good question. You know, one of the things about a year ago, I started we've got some friends who are a little bit later founders maybe kind of series B or series C in Africa. And over the course of a couple of weeks, I pulled all of them and essentially asked them how much of the mentorship that you've been given from people in the West has ported over to the African context? And the reason I ask that question is, as I talk to Americans, I think their view is I don't have anything to offer. Right? I mean, I just don't understand Africa. I don't stand a local context. I don't understand the risks that they face. And the average number and I have is written down. The average number was 95%. So in other words, the founders at succeed tend to say almost all of the mentorship that we can glean from somebody in the West ports over to Africa. So yes, there are local things that you might not know, but I think my encouragement would be if you've got a heart for it, and maybe over the capital or the logistics or even the time to pursue it, don't underestimate the impact that you can have made. Terms of mentorship perspective to a younger or just earlier founder in Africa. I think that would be the encouragement I'd want to give is there are more ways to help than just capital, and it's probably going to be more helpful than you think.
Henry: My encouragement would be to just check it out. And there's some really, really neat funds out there. And of course, Andrew with Kaleo. But you've got Sango, you've got a Rua future Africa Ventures platform, aka Creed. There's just some really, really compelling ways to get in, to invest with excellence, with people who understand the marketplace and then just and pray about it. If the body of Christ just realized that God does care about how we steward his capital and ask him, Lord, should I be looking at this or not? That's the big one.
Richard: All right. Well, our favorite question to ask on the pod, what's God been teaching you in it through his Word lately? And we'll close there.
Andrew: You know, I think my answer, this is one of those things that's not new, but I think we have to continually remember as believers, I've been in the book of Hebrews in Leviticus a lot, and I think Lord's been hammering home is the work is finished. I know Jesus said that on the cross, but you see in Hebrews, you know, he sat down at the right hand of the father. Our high priest sat down. He finished his work. That's what the Lord's been showing me. The work is done first.
Henry: I love, of course, this question, and really the story in the Bible is that I think it got really used on me recently. Is the ten lepers okay, Jesus going down the street and he sees ten lepers and he heals them all. And some amount of time goes by and I don't know how much time it was, but one comes back and thanks him in a loud voice. Okay, what happened? The other nine? What do they do? Well, I don't know. They went back to the office and all these emails get caught up on. Or maybe some of the lepers went back and try to figure out if that cute girl that they knew before they had leprosy is still available. I don't even know what they're doing, but they got distracted. Only one came back and said, thank you. If you look at that story from an apocryphal vantage point, Jesus walks down the street, sees ten lepers, and says, here's the deal. You're going to have to work for me for the next 7 or 8 months. I'm going to get you at 6 a.m., and you get off your shift at 10 p.m., but at the end of that, you will have earned your freedom from this debilitating skin disease. How many of the ten would have taken him up on that deal? The answer is all ten. And then we have this challenge with the beauty and the challenge of our Orthodox Christian faith, which is we have unmerited favor, free grace. And the question is, am I the one leper? Am I going back and praising God in a loud voice? Or am I completely sucked in by the worries of the world and the deceitfulness of riches? And I don't have the opportunity to have the type of return of the 30, 60, 100 fold. Because if we just have an intellectual cultural understanding, the odds are that nine out of ten of us won't live the type of life that we're capable of, and we're at a disadvantage to other faith traditions in some of these emerging markets that are based on earning your salvation by doing good works. But again, if we can really capture the beauty of the gift given us and the value of it, then God can use that to multiply again 30, 60, or 100 fold, which gives us an advantage over the faith traditions where you have to earn something. And so what he's been teaching me is and just really question is like, are you the one leper I want to be the one leper. I don't want to be the nine.
Richard: That's awesome. Well, Andrew Furman, Cleo Ventures Henry Kastner, obviously co-founder of the Faith driven movement, both of you guys are such a profound encouragement. You've been trailblazing inside this FDA space. Safe travels to Africa. Have a wonderful trip. Thank you for what you guys are doing, the work you're doing, the ways you're kind of helping faith driven investors shift their focus from maybe just their domestic focus to what else God is doing across the globe. What a joy to have you on, gents.
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