Ain’t no mountain high enough

Mike and Sam ventured to Africa last month to accomplish two big goals: visit our two portfolio companies operating in Africa and climb Mt. Kilimanjaro. The trip was a success and an experience of a lifetime.

We don’t invest in Africa often and so when we do, the bar is very high. These founders impressed us enough to invest and reminded us how special they are when we got a chance to visit their place of work. Jeff is building Jaza for the next 100 years and there is no personal sacrifice that has or will tamper his ambition. His company is structured with clear systems to allow scale without layers of supervision and a culture of pride and service. Michael is breaking product build records by going nights without sleep to build a one in a million brand called Zeno. He is charismatic and inspiring, always bringing new interest and excitement to the table with high quality employees, investors and customers that become advocates.

Jaza Energy is one of the first investments from Fund I that we exited last year. Over the course of our investment in Jaza, they provided four million solar charged batteries to families and businesses in rural Tanzania and Nigeria that don’t have access to electricity. Zeno is among our most recent investments from Fund III. Zeno’s electric motorbikes and battery swap infrastructure are replacing gas-powered bikes by being more affordable to buy and operate. Mike wrote an article about their experience, click here for the full version.