H2O Venture Partners

Name

H2O Venture Partners

Legal name

H2O

Website

https://h2ovp.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2013

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

H2O Venture Partners is an Oxford-based impact investment firm that builds new enterprises from scratch in smallholder agricultural value chains across sub-Saharan Africa, serving smallholder farmers, cooperatives, and rural communities through a portfolio of portfolio companies.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Venture Capital and Impact Investment Services

NAICS

Corporate, Subsidiary, and Regional Managing Offices (551114), Other Vegetable (except Potato) and Melon Farming (111219), Management of Companies and Enterprises (55)

SIC

Agricultural Services (700), Patent Owners & Lessors (6794)

akta.pro primary industry

Economic Growth, Livelihoods & Private Sector Development (BPADAEAE)

akta.pro secondary industries

SME & Entrepreneurship Development (Trade-Linked) (BPADAMAE), Private Sector & Blended Finance Arms (IFC-type) (BPADACAJ), Business Services (B2B) Growth Equity (FSANACAD)

Keywords

• Venture capital services
• Impact investment
• Agricultural enterprise creation
• Smallholder agriculture
• Venture building

Headquarters

HQ city

Oxford

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels2 records

Core offering

H2O Venture Partners is an impact investment and venture-building firm that creates new enterprises from scratch ("green-field development") to fill gaps in smallholder agricultural value chains in sub-Saharan Africa. The firm operates a gated origination-pilot-scale-up investment process, building a portfolio of synergistic enterprises spanning agriculture, health, and environment sectors that deliver products and services to smallholder farmers, including input supply, post-harvest handling, value-add processing, and market access.

Product overview

H2O Venture Partners is a venture capital firm that creates new enterprises from scratch in the agricultural, health, and environment sectors in sub-Saharan Africa. The firm operates through a portfolio of 14 portfolio companies spanning: agriculture (Farm Fresh, Rumbuka Seeds, Sarura Commodities, Ingabo Plant Health, Gorilla Honey, Zana Tools), health (Milele Animal Health, Sigasira Health), environment (Citizen Bird), and technology ventures (Fuel 3D, Oxitec, Microbial Solutions, Structured Eye, 360 Genomics). The portfolio companies provide products and services to support smallholder farming and rural communities, including crop processing, seed distribution, agricultural inputs, veterinary products, and various health/environmental technologies. The firm follows a gated origination-pilot-scale-up investment process to systematically build enterprises from scratch.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Citizen Bird A portfolio company that operates a network of instrumented bird boxes across the UK and internationally, using citizen science to study habitat and climate change effects on wild vertebrates.
• Farm Fresh A Rwandan beans processor exporting across East Africa that increases incomes for smallholder bean producers while reducing firewood and charcoal use to improve health and reduce CO2 emissions.
• Fuel 3D A portfolio company spun out of Oxford University in 2008, applying cutting edge stereo photogrammetry for 3D imaging across multiple sectors, with notable impact in healthcare including oncology, wound imaging, and brain surgery.
• Gorilla Honey A portfolio company that markets honey to increase smallholder incomes and reduce economic exploitation of the Virunga Forest, refuge of the Mountain Gorilla. The distinctive Virunga honey is used as a 'hero ingredient' by Western Food and Beverage partners.
• Ingabo Plant Health Since 2014, Ingabo has pioneered the supply of critical inputs needed by Rwandan smallholders to control pests and diseases, buying direct from manufacturers to drive down prices while increasing access through a direct supply model.
• Milele Animal Health Launched in 2018 in partnership with GALVmed, Milele develops a sustainable model for the supply of veterinary products and services to smallholder livestock farmers in hard-to-reach communities in Tanzania's Kilimanjaro Region.
• Oxitec A 2002 Oxford University spinout that developed genetic techniques to control insects of agricultural and public health importance; acquired by Intrexon Corp (now Precigen) in 2015.
• Rumbuka Seeds Since 2015, Rumbuka has worked with smallholder cooperative out-growers to multiply and distribute high yielding maize seed varieties in Rwanda, increasing yields and incomes for Rwandan smallholder farmers.
• Sarura Commodities Cleans, aggregates and trades beans and maize from Rwandan smallholders in-country, regionally, and internationally. Its innovative 'warrantage' system allows farmers to participate in increased sale prices secured from premium offtakes.
• Sigasira Health An early stage Rwandan enterprise developing a portfolio of WASH and nutrition products, distributing through Community Health Workers to increase CHW incomes whilst improving the health of rural communities.
• Zana Tools Launched in 2015, Zana develops and markets low-cost, labour-saving agricultural tools for smallholders aimed particularly at crops which through intensification could no longer be managed manually. Currently dormant.

Quantifiable outcome

• Smallholder income increases through premium pricing and direct market access
• +2 more outcomes

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Two partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• University of EdinburghcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartner for the SEED Programme alongside UK DfID, supporting development of innovative new enterprises for smallholder farming.
• GALVmedcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership with Milele Animal Health launched in 2018 in Tanzania's Kilimanjaro Region to develop sustainable models for veterinary product and service supply to smallholder livestock farmers.

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves11 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• Acumen Fund: Acumen is a global impact investment fund that invests in early-stage enterprises serving low-income communities, with deep exposure to sub-Saharan Africa agriculture and energy. Like H2O, Acumen provides patient capital and operational support to build businesses serving base-of-the-pyramid customers.
• AgDevCo: AgDevCo is a specialist investor in African agribusinesses, providing growth capital to SMEs across sub-Saharan Africa. It is a direct peer to H2O given its shared focus on building and scaling agricultural value-chain enterprises in the same geography (Rwanda, Tanzania, East Africa).
• Novastar Ventures: Novastar is an East Africa-focused venture capital firm backing early-stage businesses serving low-income consumers. Comparable to H2O in geographic focus (East Africa) and stage of investment in SMEs addressing smallholder and consumer markets.
• Root Capital: Root Capital is a non-profit impact investor providing capital and capacity building to agricultural SMEs in Africa and Latin America. It is comparable to H2O's agricultural value-chain investment thesis and smallholder focus, though it operates primarily as a lender rather than equity builder.
• Goodwell Investments: Goodwell is a Dutch impact investment firm focused on inclusive growth in Africa and India, providing venture and growth capital to SMEs serving low-income populations. Overlaps with H2O in providing patient equity capital to early-stage African enterprises.
• Shell Foundation: Shell Foundation is a UK-registered impact investor that creates and scales enterprises addressing energy, agriculture, and mobility challenges in emerging markets. Comparable to H2O in building enterprises from scratch rather than only investing, with similar sectoral breadth.

Broad incumbents

• British International Investment (BII): BII (formerly CDC Group) is the UK's development finance institution investing across Africa and South Asia. It is a broad incumbent in H2O's space as a large-scale DFI with overlapping geographies (Rwanda, Tanzania) and sectors (agriculture, health) but operates at significantly larger cheque sizes and ticket-level scale.
• FMO (Dutch Entrepreneurial Development Bank): FMO is the Netherlands' DFI investing in SMEs, financial institutions, and agribusiness across emerging markets, including sub-Saharan Africa. A broad incumbent comparable to H2O's smallholder agriculture and SME focus, but with a much larger fund and broader mandate.
• Omidyar Network: Omidyar Network is a philanthropic impact investment firm operating across multiple geographies and sectors including financial inclusion and agriculture. Comparable to H2O in mission-driven investing but operates at significantly larger scale and across more geographies and asset classes.

Emerging players

• Gray Matters Capital: Gray Matters Capital is an impact investor focused on education, agriculture, and healthcare for base-of-the-pyramid populations, with active portfolio companies in Africa and India. Comparable as an emerging impact investor with thematic overlap on smallholder agriculture and WASH/health, though smaller and more selective than H2O's portfolio scale.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/h2o_vp

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles4 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments3 records

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about H2O Venture Partners