Forest Flavors, CRS Innovative Finance
| Organization | Instrument | Typical ticket | Example investment | Indicative returns |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Mercy Corps Ventures Venture capital |
Equity | Seed – Series A | Tappi (Kenya fintech) | 24% IRR, 2.1x MOIC (disclosed) |
One Acre Ventures Direct lending |
Debt | $250K+ | Enimiro (Uganda vanilla/coffee) | Targets 11% gross IRR, NPL <6% (for $50M fund) |
Ground Up Investing Blended, company-building |
Equity, quasi-equity, debt | $200K–500K | Mountain Harvest (Uganda coffee) | Unknown |
Heifer Impact Capital Blended, program-integrated |
Loans, guarantees, equity | $50K–840K | Grass Roots Farmers' Cooperative (USA) | Not disclosed; received a $15M, 3% line of credit from the Heifer Foundation |
ACDI/VOCA (AV Ventures)Not in original profiles
ACDI/VOCA (the parent org) laid off 137 staff across 4 WARN notices, Mar–Nov 2025, tied to USAID funding cuts — impact on AV Ventures specifically not separately documented |
Blended (debt, revenue-based loans, some equity) | $100K–$1M | AgroCenta (Ghana agri-tech platform) | Not disclosed; catalytic/concessional capital |
Cordaid (CIMBV)Not in original profiles
Confirmed wound down. Cordaid's board decided in March 2023 to wind down the investment programme managed by CIM BV, repurposing the Loans & Guarantees reserves (including the West Africa Bright Future Fund), with unwinding expected to conclude by 2029 |
Blended (equity, subordinated debt, senior debt, guarantees) | Varies; historically smaller check sizes across MFI/SME portfolio | Mountain Lion (Sierra Leone rice milling/out-grower scheme) | Self-reported "in line with target returns" (dated); program since wound down |
Sources & resources
Mercy Corps Ventures — Organization · Portfolio · Investment approach · Example: Tappi
One Acre Ventures — Organization & approach · Example: Enimiro
Ground Up Investing — Organization · Portfolio & approach · Example: Mountain Harvest
Heifer Impact Capital — Organization & approach · Portfolio & example: Grass Roots Farmers' Cooperative
ACDI/VOCA (AV Ventures) — Organization · AV Ventures · Example: AgroCenta · Status source
Cordaid (CIMBV) — Organization & approach · Wind-down source
Follow-up note
Mercy Corps Ventures vs. Mercy Corps AgriFin — these are separate initiatives under the same parent organization, not two versions of the same thing. Mercy Corps AgriFin (MCAF) is a donor-funded facilitation program (Gates Foundation, Mastercard Foundation, Swiss Development Corporation) that helps partners — banks, mobile network operators, agribusinesses — design and test digital financial services for smallholder farmers. It makes no direct investments. Mercy Corps Ventures (MCV), profiled above, is the actual capital vehicle. The two are linked only administratively (MCV's Scott Onder sits on AgriFin's advisory council) and share a parent org and target geography.
Source: Mercy Corps AgriFin