Sub-Saharan Africa-focused private equity fund manager Goodwell Investments has announced USD 1.5 million (EUR 1.2 million) Series A financing for Mozambique-based integrated aquaculture company Chicoa Fish Farm.
Chicoa Fish Farm was founded in 2015 and is based at Mozambique’s Cahora Bassa dam. The new funding will get closer to its goal of annual production of 5,000 metric tons (MT) of tilapia, which it hopes to sell domestically and in Zambia, South Africa, and Malawi.
Chicoa’s growth strategy calls for opening new production facilities, building a processing plant, and expanding its supply network of local small-scale farmers, according to Chicoa Founder and CEO Gerry McCollum.
“We are delighted that Goodwell has joined us on this really exciting journey to develop fish farming as an industry in Mozambique,” McCollum said.
Chicoa has for the last five years been striving to achieve market stability and increased earnings for smallholder fish farmers in Southern Africa, according to McCollum. The company is the largest commercial provider of fish in Mozambique and is transforming tilapia farming in the Southern Africa country, he said. National output has risen from 490 MT in 2009 to 1,800 MT in 2019.
Chicoa’s start in Mozambique coincided with a decline in Mozambique’s aquaculture sector “dominating but unstable marine shrimp farming operated by few large operators,” McCollum said. But the country’s shrimp farming was badly hit by an outbreak of white spot disease, which, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization, “completely destroyed the stock, leaving shrimp farms and farm-owned processing workshops closed and workers dismissed.”
Goodwell Investments Senior Investment Associate Dhanyal Davidson said his firm, which has USD 150 million (EUR 123.9 million) in capital and 25 portfolio companies, is excited to partner with Chicoa to further develop a sustainable fintech sector in Africa.
“The sector can play a key role in the economic development Mozambique by providing affordable, high-quality protein, creating jobs and generating income for local farmers, and promoting broader regional development,” Davidson said.
With the new funding, Chicoa’s chance of developing the aquaculture industry to meet the local and regional demand is improved, according to a firm.
“[The] funding boosts the transition to its next stage of growth — the processing and distribution of frozen tilapia products,” Goodwell said in a statement.
Photo courtesy of Chicoa Fish Farm
