GHANA – KOA, a Swiss-Ghanaian start-up, has raised US$15 million in equity in a Series B round to finance its ongoing scale-up while simultaneously expanding the cocoa fruit upcycling and spearheading a shift to regenerative and climate-smart agriculture.
The closing comes just a few months after the inauguration of its new cocoa fruit factory in Ghana and was led by the Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) Fund with a US$ 9million investment.
Among the new investors is also the Regenerative Growth Fund 1, a new SFDR 9 fund managed by the Venture Capital team at Zebra Impact and the Swiss bank Mirabaud.
Koa’s existing shareholders, including Haltra which led Koa’s Series A equity round in 2021, also contributed to the series B round.
Francis Appiagyei-Poku, Finance & Administration Director at Koa Impact Ghana Ltd., highlights: “The Series B round provides Koa with the opportunity to continue our growth path with our existing operations while at the same time allowing us to further invest into R&D and innovation projects that create a truly sustainable cocoa value chain.”
Founded in 2017, Koa is transforming the cocoa industry through its innovative upcycling of the cocoa fruit. Koa is the first company in West Africa to have unlocked a new value chain around the so far discarded cocoa pulp.
Working closely with cocoa smallholders in Ghana, Koa reduces on-farm food waste, and generates additional farmer income while at the same time bringing unique new ingredients to the food and beverage industry.
The Series B round comes at a critical time for Koa as the company recently inaugurated its new factory located in Akim Achiase in the Eastern Region of Ghana.
With this new facility, Koa has set the foundation to increase its production output tenfold while cooperating with an additional 10,000 cocoa farmers.
The equity financing provides Koa with the funding required to scale its operations, develop more cocoa fruit products, and expand its marketing and distribution activities.
At the same time, Koa is planning to take its impact to the next level with new business expansion plans aimed at extending the cocoa fruit upcycling and intensify regenerative agriculture practices.
Koa sees this as a necessity in light of deteriorating soil fertility and the high carbon footprint associated with traditional cocoa farming in West Africa.
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