Pre-investment Technical Assistance by LDN TAF

Country:

Kenya

Sector:

Horticulture-based agroforestry

Business model

Cinch allows smallholder landowners to opt their land into Cinch’s platform, which transfers 100% of the risk from the farmer to Cinch. Cinch is then responsible for investing in the land (i.e. irrigation, management, etc), completely managing the larger mosaic farm, producing a product & selling it onwards to large buyers on contract. The landowner in turn receives a lease payment, a salary & a pro-rata dividend, which significantly increases their per annum income. The leases are short term & allow the landowners to opt out when they choose. So far Cinch has had 100% retention of landowner participation, increased landowner incomes by at least 3x p.a. & hired women for 70% of their workforce.

Investment need

Cinch is preparing for a Series A fundraising round in 2023/1H 2024 to expand their established business & grow new business lines such as agroforestry. Cinch is also currently open to new investments to help scale the existing geographic footprint across Kenya and East Africa prior to Series A fundraising.

Technical assistance

TA assistance is aimed at adapting Cinch’s existing ‘Mosaic Agriculture’ model to agroforestry. Understanding the revenue potential of various tree species (i.e. fruit, oil, timber, carbon credits, etc.) will help Cinch build out a comprehensive model to scale agroforestry in the future. TA assistance will be primarily used for:

  • Understanding which tree species are suitable for various climates / locations, as well as which species meet revenue objectives that complement the existing operations of Cinch
  • Piloting different agroforestry set-ups to prove the concept and build a track-record
  • Building an understanding of how to achieve carbon certification, access to carbon offset markets and sell carbon credits generated from the tree farms
  • Gain a better understanding of gender dynamics within Cinch’s operations and develop an ambitious gender equality strategy

© Cinch Markets

Technical assistance support from the LDN TAF does not constitute a commitment from the LDN Fund, or Mirova, to finance directly or indirectly the project described above. Any such commitment shall be subject to inter alia, a detailed technical, financial and legal due diligence of the company and the project, as well as all required LDN Fund investment committee approvals and satisfactory documentation.