KENYA – Mr. Green Africa, a Kenyan plastics recycling pioneer, has received a major round of investment from impact-driven investors and key industry stakeholders to scale its business model across the continent.
The investment round was led by DOW, a leading material science company that will support MGA innovations on plastic collection and recycling, and product development, with a focus on flexible packaging feedstock.
The investment will enable Mr. Green Africa to build on its success and scale its business model by improving the supply chain and paying its waste pickers a living wage.
Mr. Green Africa also plans to increase the capacity of the production plant to process 15-20,000 metric tons of plastic waste in the East Africa region.
Mr. Green Africa’s purpose is to turn WASTE TO VALUE and make a localized circular economy in emerging markets commonplace.
The deal shows the company was able to attract impact investors to embed sustainable environmental and social impact at its core as it was also able to engage critical plastics supply chain stakeholders to ensure business decisions are guided by contextual expertise and remain future-proof.
Other investors included Minderoo, through its ‘No Plastic Waste’ and ‘Walk Free’ initiatives, which will support MGA in their impact journey with a particular focus on improving the livelihoods of informal waste pickers and making them part of the MGA supply chain in a sustainable way
“It’s a testament to the authenticity of the vision & purpose of what the company and its people stand for”
Joining them was AlphaMundi Group (AMG), a Swiss impact investing manager specializing in small enterprise finance in emerging markets, with a regional office in Nairobi, investing through its AlphaJiri Investment Fund (AJIF).
The remaining investors were The BESTSELLER Foundation, a circular economy focused Impact Investor that helps innovators tackle one of the biggest challenges of our time; DOB Equity, a leading Dutch family-backed impact investor in East Africa and Global Innovation Fund, a non-profit innovation fund headquartered in London, that invests in the development, rigorous testing, and scaling of innovations targeted at improving the lives of the world’s poorest people.
By improving the output quality of its recycled plastics to a food-grade standard and significantly increasing the capacity, Mr. Green Africa will contribute to a broader circular plastics economy.
The company plans to create a new sourcing stream by integrating consumers from all income brackets incentivized to deposit plastic waste back into the MGA collection systems.
To ensure a replicable and internationally accepted value chain, benchmarks & standards on quality and traceability will be key and MGA has already done important leg work on this topic and is looking to release a business model-specific framework that will enable it to measure and monitor its impact growth.
Keiran Smith, Co-Founder, and CEO of Mr. Green Africa said that: “We are delighted to bring together and align such diverse groups of partners and investors to join this journey of Mr. Green Africa. It’s a testament to the authenticity of the vision & purpose of what the company and its people stand for.”
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