Barka Fund

👀 Want to know if your training is working? Look at the faces. Intent. Focused. Leaning in. That's how we know our Investment Readiness Program is one of the best in the industry. 📍 At Lake Naivasha this week, we're walking founders through the entire journey an investor travels: from impact mandate, through screening, diligence and the decision, all the way to exit. 💰 Today zoomed in on deal fundamentals, the 3 lenses behind every transaction: 📈 Economics: how money flows in 🎯 Control: who decides what 🚪 Exit: how money gets out 🔑 Our differentiation? We're investors who love to prepare founders. 🙌🏾 We enjoy the sexy stuff, valuation, projections, impact. But we lean in just as hard on mindset, moving from fear, alignment and earning investors' trust. 🌱 The result? Founders who are ready, deals built to last, and an ecosystem stronger for it. World Resources Institute | WRI Africa #InvestmentReadiness #ImpactInvesting #RestorationEconomy

🌍 Back in Kenya's Majestic Great Rift Valley, at our favorite spot: Lake Naivasha (sorry, Nairobi 😉), delivering our flagship Investment Readiness Program. Since 2022, we've delivered this program to 100 companies across 5 partners. This week it powers something special: the finale of the Land Accelerator, the World Resources Institute (WRI)'s groundbreaking program for restoration businesses across Africa, 2018-2024, co-founded with 'Luni' Libes of Africa Eats (thank you Luni) and with support from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) and the African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative (AFR100). We worked with ✅ 20 enterprises across 12 AFR100 countries, delivered 📊 200+ question business diagnosis for every company; completed 🤝 20/20 interviews, with 16 of 20 one on one coaching sessions and received a ⭐ 4.9 / 5 AVERAGE RATING, for diagnosis usefulness and overall satisfaction out of a perfect 5.0. 🏆 💪🏾 🙏🏾  Deep gratitude to the WRI leadership, and to Samuel Kabiru and Victor Muthumbi, for working with us in the last 2 months, culminating in this week's bootcamp. 📣 Investors, PLEASE join us this 📅 Friday, 17 July 2026 📍 Safari Park Hotel, Nairobi, if interested to attend the Demo Day & Restoration Ecosystem Networking Forum. A closed event, 100+ expected throughout the day. DM us for an invitation. World Resources Institute | WRI Africa 🌱 #LandAccelerator #RestorationEconomy #ImpactInvesting

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We backed Côte d'Ivoire's first inclusive AI hackathon. Here's why. 🌍 Barka Fund is a platinum sponsor and catalytic financial partner behind Vibeathon Côte d'Ivoire 2026, an event on one bold idea: AI should be for everyone. Not just coders. 🤖 Through "vibecoding," participants build real digital solutions without writing a single line of code. Students, graduates, entrepreneurs, non-technical talent, all solving real problems in agriculture, energy, transport, resource management and climate. 🎓 Our competitors are already in motion. The VIBEATHON Bootcamp ran two online sessions on AI, Vibe Coding and project development, and wrapped up with a final in-person session this past Saturday, July 4, at the Palm Club Hotel in Abidjan. 📅 Main event: July 11, Abidjan. One full day: 🎤 Keynotes and expert panels on AI and sustainability 🛠️ Hands-on training workshops and AI Experience Studios ⚡ 20 teams building solutions in a 4-hour live competition 🏆 Top teams pitch to a jury, with prizes, mentorship, and 90 days of incubation for the winners This is what catalytic initiative looks like when it reaches the ground: local talent, solving local challenges, building the future for themselves. 👏 Hats off to our co-organizers Creativ'O, RIT-Africa, and Afrinovatech SARL. 📣 In Abidjan? Come be part of it. Tag someone who should be there. #CatalyticFinance #AIforGood #VIBEATHON #CôteDIvoire #ImpactInvesting #DigitalInclusion

🌱 A proud moment for Barka Impact! On Tuesday, at the Ministry of Digital Transition and Technological Innovation, we celebrated the closing ceremony of the Greenpreneur Incubation Program, Year 2 Cohorts 1 & 2 under the GENIE project. 🎓 A new generation of young Ivorian green entrepreneurs leaves equipped to build and finance their growth. 📊 Year 2 in numbers: ✅ 100+ applications received ✅ 79 founders admitted ✅ A 96% completion rate ✅ 38% women, with 3 new cities reached (Korhogo, Man, Daloa) 🤝 A heartfelt thank you to our partner GGGI Cote d'Ivoire for renewing its trust in Barka to deliver this second year, alongside the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) and the Government of Côte d'Ivoire and all of our ecosystem partners. 🌍 From idea to impact: together we are building green entrepreneurship in Côte d'Ivoire. 🇨🇮 #Greenpreneur #GENIE #ImpactInvesting #GGGI #KOICA #BarkaImpact ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 🌱 Un moment de fierté pour Barka Impact ! Mardi, au Ministère de la Transition Numérique et de l'Innovation Technologique, nous avons célébré la cérémonie de clôture du Programme d'Incubation Greenpreneur, Année 2 Cohortes 1 & 2 dans le cadre du projet GENIE. 🎓 Une génération de jeunes entrepreneurs verts ivoiriens repart aujourd'hui outillée pour bâtir et financer leur croissance. 📊 En chiffres pour cette Année 2 : ✅ 100+ candidatures reçues ✅ 79 fondateurs admis ✅ Un taux de réussite de 96% ✅ 38% de femmes, 3 nouvelles villes atteintes (Korhogo, Man, Daloa) 🤝 Un immense merci au GGGI Cote d'Ivoire pour sa confiance renouvelée en Barka pour la mise en œuvre de cette deuxième année, ainsi qu'à Korea International Cooperation Agency et le Gouvernment de la Côte d'Ivoire et l'ensemble de nos partenaires de l'écosystème entrepreneurial. 🌍 De l'idée à l'impact : c'est ensemble que nous construisons l'entrepreneuriat vert en Côte d'Ivoire. 🇨🇮 #Greenpreneur #GENIE #ImpactInvesting #GGGI #KOICA #BarkaImpact

Thank you again for making our work visible, credible and worth backing. 🙏

We made the shortlist. 🌍 Barka Fund was named a finalist for Impact Funder of the Year at the 2026 Africa Impact Investment Awards. Not long ago, we were just an idea in a deck. Today we run a full cycle investment platform for African founders building climate solutions: investment readiness, direct investment, and deep post investment support. We back the founders who have outgrown a grant but are still told they are too early for everyone else. Our model is simple. Prepare first, invest second and support where needed. 🤝 Most recent numbers we are proudest of: 📈 85+ companies supported 💰 $7.1m in capital catalyzed through Barka Capital and other investors 🌱 80% youth led 👩🏾 40% female led We are not the biggest name on that list, and we know it. To stand among this company is an honour. 🙏🏾🙏🏾 Deeply grateful to Krutham and FirstRand Corporate Centre for making our work visible, credible and worth backing. And a genuine bow to Investisseurs & Partenaires - I&P (IPDEV), the worthy winner in our category. A true market first, and a model we admire. 👏🏾👏🏾 To every founder who trusted us before the world was watching, this one is yours. The underdog is only getting started. 🚀 Krutham | FirstRand Corporate Centre | Bezos Earth Fund | WRI Africa | SK2 Fund | U.S. International Development Finance Corporation #ImpactInvesting #AIIA2026 #BarkaFund

🎟️ We had 3 seats. Here's who we sent. As a proud member of the Association Ivoirienne des Investisseurs en Capital, Barka Fund received three spots at the 3rd Abidjan Private Equity and Venture Capital Summit (APES 2026). A room with 800+ leaders, 80+ international investors, and the LPs shaping private capital in Africa. The easy call was to fill those seats from the top. We made a different one. 👇 ✅ Two seats went to our younger managers. ✅ One went to a senior leader, about to return to school to pursue his MBA, partially funded by Barka. 🌱 Because access is not a perk we hoard at the top. It is how the next generation builds the relationships and confidence that compound over a career. 💡 At Barka, we say we value our people and take their growth seriously. Decisions like this are where that conviction gets tested. Talent grows in the room, at the table, in the conversation. Not on the sidelines. 🙌 Proud of our team (Christ G. Lokonda, Ornella Kouassi-Akoupo and Daoud Saphyra Diabate) for showing up and representing what we stand for. This is what investing in people actually looks like. 🤝 Thank you to the A2IC and the APES organizers for convening the ecosystem. #VentureCapital #APES2026 #A2IC #InvestingInPeople

🌍 Barka Restoration Voices | Episode 6 🌍 Meet Rajiv Pandya, Founder & Managing Director of ORIENT ENTERPRISES LTD (KENYA) — a Kenyan macadamia processor and exporter quietly putting East Africa on the global nut map. 🇰🇪🥜 🏭 Since 2008, Orient has been cracking nuts (literally) at its fully automated facility in Kiambu County, sourcing from 1,000+ smallholder farmers and shipping premium kernels to the US, Europe, Asia, and beyond. ✈️🌐 Macadamia markets go up. They go down. They go sideways. Rajiv keeps shipping. 📦💪🏾 A true multi-sector operator with deep roots in agribusiness, logistics, and international trade, Rajiv also completed the Stanford Seed Transformation Network, Kenya — because apparently running a global nut business wasn't enough of a challenge. 🎓😄 Calm. Strategic. Quietly hilarious. And exactly the kind of operator we love backing. 💚 🎬 Watch the video. Meet Rajiv. Hear what it sounds like to build a global business out of Kenya, one kernel at a time. 🌱 Bezos Earth Fund | WRI Africa | ORIENT ENTERPRISES LTD (KENYA) #BarkaRestorationVoices #KenyaGreatRiftValley #RetorationEconomy