About the fund
Kampani was incorporated on January 29, 2015 to address a structural gap in agricultural finance: the near-absence of patient growth capital for farmer-owned producer organisations in amounts between €50K and €1M — the "missing middle" between micro-credit and industrial loans. Kampani uses equity or subordinated debt — always without collateral — in tickets of €100K–€500K (more recently up to €1M), with investment durations of 6–8 years and a standard grace period of two years; it requires a board mandate and minority protections in all investments. General management is delegated to the Executive Director, with Alterfin serving as portfolio manager and providing deal screening and audit capabilities. The Belgian federal government established a first-loss tranche alongside a TA facility, allowing Kampani to more than double in fund size and reach thousands more smallholder farmers. Kampani currently reaches almost 100,000 smallholder farmers directly and measures success through reduced vulnerability, increased income, and improved margins for producers. Over two-thirds of its portfolio are Africa-based. Illustrative investments include coffee cooperative Cookkanz (DRC), organic fertilizer producer Bio Phyto (Benin), the National Union of Women Rice Parboilers (Burkina Faso), and its first-ever investment in a Burundian coffee cooperative processing plant in 2016. Its most recent disclosed transaction is a €1M senior unsecured loan to U-IMCEC, a rural microfinance cooperative in Senegal, to finance a dedicated agricultural portfolio enabling farmers to adopt solar irrigation, processing equipment, and water management systems.
