Project:Water and Energy for Food (WE4F) in MENA
Location:North Africa (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia)
Key Figures:27 SMEs were added to an investment pipeline, and 5 financial institutions were identified for funding partnerships.
Background:LixCap supported a USAID contract to attract private investment to innovators at the nexus of food, water, and energy across North Africa. With a short timeline of only two months, our flexible team and local networks enabled us to rapidly develop an investment opportunity pipeline to connect innovators with the investors and services needed to grow and scale their companies.
Methods:Using our on-location team in Morocco, LixCap collected detailed profiles of enterprises, financial institutions, and technical assistance (TA) firms that would make up the pipeline. Our team engaged government actors, business leaders, associations, and donor agencies to conduct thorough local market analysis. This included research into investment barriers and mitigants and sectoral mapping. We developed robust evaluation criteria based on practical implementation needs, such as likelihood to close, alignment with investor priorities, and impact objectives. We then sourced, screened, and selected companies based on those criteria.
Results:LixCap, along with our partners at CrossBoundary, generated a pipeline of the highest potential investment opportunities looking to increase the sustainability of agricultural food value chains. In two months, we reached out to 27 North African enterprises operating at the intersection of food, water, and energy that planned to scale to a minimum of 100,000 customers over a five- year period. We also worked with 5 financial institutions that had the interest and ability required to invest in these enterprises. In addition, we identified 8 TA firms that were able to support these enterprises. In our selection process, we prioritized local and regional institutions.