Two Kenyan firms that grow by protecting nature join a pan-African accelerator aiming at $10 million

In Nairobi, two very different Kenyan businesses share one idea: nature is not the obstacle to profit, it is the product. Acacia EPZ collects gum arabic — the tree sap used in soft drinks, sweets and medicines — from collectors who are more than 70% women, offering buyers a traceable source whose revenues have grown 56% in two years. ForestFoods farms using agroforestry, growing food among trees around Limuru, Naivasha and Naro Moru. Both have been picked, with three other African enterprises, for the first Nature-First Innovation Lab: a 12-month accelerator run by FSD Africa with Systemiq and the African Natural Capital Alliance, backed by the UK and Norway, that will get them ready to raise investment toward a collective target of about $10 million.

SDG 15 · Life on land — Mechanism: institutional program