NORDIC IMPACT FUNDS
ANNUAL RAPPORT 2026

SEC1

INTRO

About Nordic Impact Funds

SEC2

Nordic Impact Funds is an early-growth impact investor for founders building climate-resilient livelihoods across East Africa. Since launch, we have backed mission-driven teams at the moments that matter most, providing patient and flexible capital and hands-on support. Through every cycle, we stand shoulder to shoulder as long-term partners, turning bold, practical solutions into resilient, scalable businesses.

Early and Growth Stage​
Agri-food value chains and inclusive finance/fintech.
USD100,000-2M​
Ticket size
East Africa​
Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Rwanda & Malawi.

SEC3

PORTFOLIO A

SEC4

PORTFOLIO B

Xeno

XENO, Uganda

Savings and investment platform targeted low-income clients

A mobile savings platform democratizing access to professional investment management and helping people build financial resilience. It allows customers to save as little as USD 3 and have it invested in a combination of money markets, government bonds and regional stocks to earn a solid return of 10-15% on their savings.

+40K users opened an account with Xeno in 2023 and over 77K of XENO’s users have reported improved purchasing power after using their services.

https://myxeno.com/

SEC5

group of-african-children-looking-at-a-computer
african-woman-working-in-the-field
african-woman-talking-in-smartphone-with-money-in-her-hand
african-village-people-sitting-on-the-ground-listening
close-up-young-african-girl

section 3

SEC6

Theory of change

Climate-vulnerable low-income communities and women in East Africa thrive despite climate shocks, achieving food security, economic stability, and sustainable resource management

check it out here

SEC7

Climate-vulnerable low-income communities and women in East Africa thrive despite climate shocks,
achieving food security, economic stability, and sustainable resource management

SEC8

Climate-resilient agricultural production and post-harvest storage reduce crop losses and yield vulnerability – Adoption of climate-smart practices in farming, storage, and processing
Financial resilience strengthened through savings, insurance, and other financial tools – Increased use of financial tools enabling savings and risk management
Greater economic participation, leadership, and decision-making power for women in ag value chains – Low-income communities and women’s access to finance, markets, and climate-smart practices improved
Household incomes stabilized through diversified livelihoods and consistent market access – Improved market integration for smallholders and MSMEs through supply chain and buyer linkages

SEC9

More smallholder farmers purchase climate smart farming inputs and technologies

More smallholder farmers and low-income people access financial products and services

More smallholder farmers trained in climate-smart farming and/or financial literacy

More market contracts, financial services, and producer-buyer linkages established

SEC10

As SMEs grow, they become better positioned to reach and serve low-income segments, laying the foundation
for broader access to products and services and stronger value chain integration

– Investee governance and financial planning capacity improved
– Investee financial performance and resilience improved
– Investees scale and access additional funds/resources for growth
– Investee Impact and Sustainability Management capacity improved
– Investee Impact performance improved
–Investee Sustainability performance and Climate Resilience improved

SEC11

Climate Smart Solutions for Smallholders

Inclusive Agribusinesses Sourcing from Smallholders

Digital and Financial Enabler Solutions

Climate-smart solutions contributing to increased climate change adaptation and resilience

Gender-smart solutions contributing to increased gender equity

Climate-smart solutions contributing to increased climate change adaptation and resilience

Sustainable solutions ensuring no harm to sustainable development objectives

SEC12

Flexible Capital

Strategic Support

Impact Incentives

Investments in early- to growth-stage SMEs in East Africa

Technical Assistance for improved governance, scaling support, and impact

Financial incentives
for improved sustainability/impact

Climate-vulnerable low-income communities and women in East Africa thrive despite climate shocks,
achieving food security, economic stability, and sustainable resource management

Climate-resilient agricultural production and post-harvest storage reduce crop losses and yield vulnerability

Financial resilience strengthened through savings, insurance, and other financial tools

Household incomes stabilized through diversified livelihoods and consistent market access

Greater economic participation, leadership, and decision-making power for women in ag value chains

  • # of smallholder farmers with increased productivity*
  • % yield increase*
  • decrease in rejected produce
  • % increase in sourced produce (volume)*
  • % increase in sourced produce (value)*
  • # of clients with improved financial health and resilience during the reporting period
  • % increase in savings
  • % increase in investments
  • # clients benefiting from insurance payout
  • # of farmers/clients/ MSMEs with increased income
  • % increase in income
  • [Gender disaggregated data from other outcomes listed]

SEC13

Turning capital into impact

Our scale engine – why capital alone does not solve the problem

NIF’s active ownership model ultimately enables commercial viability, growth potential and capital mobilisation

Case in point: Taimba Limited

SEC14

africab-woman-using-her-smart-phone
african-woman-working-in-the-field
young african woman who is a tailor smiling while using her mobile phone

About Taimba: Taimba Limited is a Kenya-based agritech company that streamlines the fresh-produce supply chain by connecting smallholder farmers directly with urban retailers through a digital B2B platform.

By reducing the number of intermediaries, Taimba enables farmers to secure fairer prices, consistent demand and more predictable income.

The challenge: The traditional supply chain in Kenya often involves multiple layers of brokers, leading to inefficiencies, high food waste and reduced earnings for farmers.

The inefficiencies in the market have resulted in unclear product and route prioritization for Taimba, resulting growth opportunities.

The solution: NIF’s active ownership has involved assessing products and routes for optimization, embedding assessments in business strategy, developing fundraising material, scoping of current pricing approach challenges and providing recommendation.

Now, Taimba addresses these challenges by integrating technology with efficient logistics, ensuring that high-quality produce reaches markets quickly and transparently.

SEC15

OUTCOME
Commercial viability: product portfolio optimisation and strategic path towards sustainable margins Growth potential: system automation pricing engine to obtain the best value for sourced products Capital mobilisation: further investor support to finance infrastructure and operations
Future outlook
The future wave of active ownership engagement involves fundraising for further operational scaling, strengthening route optimization around core products and embedding the optimization model into reporting.

SEC16

In 2025
Taimba has reached 7,670
individuals of whom

54% are women and
46% are low-income

In 2025
Taimba has sourced from 1,654 farmers, of whom

34% are smallholder farmers
and 45% are women.

SEC17

50%

have a woman
founder or co-founder

41%

of board
members are women

43%

of management positions are held by women

46%

of employees
are women

SEC18

50%

are contributing to
financial health and resilience

50%

are contributing to climate adaptation and resilience

100%

has a founder or
co-founder of the continent

SEC19

SEC20

SEC21

“Without the active ownership and strategic support from NIF, we would be putting effort in routes and products that did not optimize our work.”

Our perspective the scale engine: Taimba is an exemplary case where we see impact investing having a compounding effect throughout the value chain.

  • The insight assessments on product and route optimization have led to capability-building across the firm, suppliers and management.

 

  • An automated pricing model has underpinned the business model, as this model not only strengthens farmer livelihoods but also contributes to improved food security and affordability in urban areas – we see network effects and a strengthened ecosystem for smallhold farmers – NIF employee

Our investment thesis – how we source opportunities that are key market enablers

  • We look for market enablers that create compounding impact.
    By addressing critical constraints within value chains and markets, these businesses unlock benefits that extend far beyond their immediate operations.

 

SEC22

Turning capital into impact

Our scale engine – why capital alone does not solve the problem

NIF’s active ownership model ultimately enables commercial viability, growth potential and capital mobilisation

Case in point: Taimba Limited

SEC23

1: About Taimba
Taimba Limited is a Kenya-based agritech company that streamlines the fresh-produce supply chain by connecting smallholder farmers directly with urban retailers through a digital B2B platform. By reducing the number of intermediaries, Taimba enables farmers to secure fairer prices, consistent demand and more predictable income.
2: The challenge
The traditional supply chain in Kenya often involves multiple layers of brokers, leading to inefficiencies, high food waste and reduced earnings for farmers. The inefficiencies in the market have resulted in unclear product and route prioritization for Taimba, resulting growth opportunities.
3: The solution
NIF’s active ownership has involved assessing products and routes for optimization, embedding assessments in business strategy, developing fundraising material, scoping of current pricing approach challenges and providing recommendation.
Now, Taimba addresses these challenges by integrating technology with efficient logistics, ensuring that high-quality produce reaches markets quickly and transparently.

SEC24

african-woman-working-in-the-field
african-woman-working-in-the-field
africab-woman-using-her-smart-phone

SEC25

“Without the active ownership and strategic support from NIF, we would be putting effort in routes and products that did not optimize our work.”

SEC26

OUTCOME
Commercial viability: product portfolio optimisation and strategic path towards sustainable margins Growth potential: system automation pricing engine to obtain the best value for sourced products Capital mobilisation: further investor support to finance infrastructure and operations
Future outlook
The future wave of active ownership engagement involves fundraising for further operational scaling, strengthening route optimization around core products and embedding the optimization model into reporting.

SEC27

BIG DATA

300M+

BIG DATA

300M+

BIG DATA

300M+

SEC28

Our perspective the scale engine:
Taimba is an exemplary case where we see impact investing having a compounding effect throughout the value chain.

The insight assessments on product and route optimization have led to capability-building across the firm, suppliers and management. An automated pricing model has underpinned the business model, as this model not only strengthens farmer livelihoods but also contributes to improved food security and affordability in urban areas – we see network effects and a strengthened ecosystem for smallhold farmers – NIF employee
Our investment thesis – how we source opportunities that are key market enablers
We look for market enablers that create compounding impact. By addressing critical constraints within value chains and markets, these businesses unlock benefits that extend far beyond their immediate operations.

SEC29

Case in point: Forested [AS4] 

About Forested: Forested connects smallholder farmers and agri-SMEs across East Africa to global buyers seeking regenerative, natural ingredients such as honey, shea butter, beeswax, and botanical oils. By embedding traceability, biodiversity protection and restoration, and climate impact into each product, Forested is rethinking how natural ingredients are produced, valued, and used.

Why we invested:

SEC30

Pioneering a scalable model for regenerative agriculture:
Through their "Ingredient Insets" – regenerative raw materials backed by measurable environmental and social impact – they're creating a pathway for global consumer brands to invest in regenerative agriculture as a quantifiable, verifiable solution to their net-zero, nature-positive, and broader impact targets.  
Innovative model for credibility and efficiency:
Their tech-enabled, field-tested approach ensures both operational excellence and trust, a rare combination that drives real impact amongst smallholder producers and global consumer brands alike.  
A visionary team with deep expertise:
Forested's team brings deep expertise across building a multitude of smallholder agri-value chains, carbon model and supply chain MRV innovations, and partnerships with global brands. Their continued resilience will drive real transformation in global agriculture.  

SEC31

Our perspective on the investment thesis:
Our perspective on the investment thesis: Forested caught our interested through its clear contribution to climate adaptation and resilience via their business model. Their approach to promoting regenerative farming and landscape restoration practices is key in capability learning for land stewards.

Their ability to create higher incomes for communities engaged in restoring nature showcases the network effects and strengthened ecosystem of their services.

SEC32

“For us, it is key to look broader than the offering of the firm, but the compounding effect a solution can have on the surrounding community.”

– NIF employee

SEC33

group of-african-children-looking-at-a-computer
african-woman-working-in-the-field
african-woman-talking-in-smartphone-with-money-in-her-hand
african-village-people-sitting-on-the-ground-listening
close-up-young-african-girl

SEC34

NEWS

SEC35

Join The Ride

Subscribe to our bi-weekly newsletter with stories from our latest adventures and the travel tips

© 2026 NORDIC IMPACT FUNDS

Grekkon, Kenya

Providing affordable (solar-) irrigation products to smallholder farmers​

Grekkon is helping small holder farmers irrigate their farms and build climate resilience. They establish boreholes, provide solar water pumps, pipes, drip irrigation and sprinklers, dam liners for rainwater harvesting, green houses and solar dryers, while at the same time advising the farmers in good agricultural practices.

Grekkon has provided irrigation products to around 10K farmers of which 85% are smallholder farmers and 75% women.

Link

XENO, Uganda

Savings and investment platform targeted low-income clients

A mobile savings platform democratizing access to professional investment management and helping people build financial resilience. It allows customers to save as little as USD 3 and have it invested in a combination of money markets, government bonds and regional stocks to earn a solid return of 10-15% on their savings.

+40K users opened an account with Xeno in 2023 and over 77K of XENO’s users have reported improved purchasing power after using their services.

Link

Taimba, Kenya

Simplified and digitized farm to market model

A digitized farm to market model – reducing food waste across the value chain and providing better prices for farmers as well as traders. Taimba connects small holder farmers directly to small traders and facilitate the logistics with cold chain, pack house and transport.

Taimba sources from more than 2.5K smallholder farmers and services more than 1K small food retailers of which 84% are low-income.

Link

Goldenpot, tanzania

Providing affordable ready-to-eat nutrition while empowering female smallholder farmers

Goldenpot produces high-quality, affordable and nutritious instant porridge, breakfast cereals, fortified maize flour and corn snacks enriched with essential nutrients. By sourcing directly from local farmers, Goldenpot ensures a farm-to-table approach that improves farmer incomes while tackling widespread malnutrition. By offering smaller sachet packaging, Goldenpot ensures their products are affordable and accessible to families across all income levels, while reducing reliance on imports and promoting regional food security. 

Goldenpot works with over 1800 women smallholder farmers and is currently supplying more than 1000 distributors, wholesale and retail outlets in Tanzania.

Link

Jamii.one, Ethiopia

Digitizing community savings groups and facilitating access to insurance

Digitizing community-based groups with a free accounting tool for their financials to build their track records and document the collective trust of the groups. This data allows people in the community-based groups to access cheaper financial services such as insurance and loans.

Jamii.one has digitally registered more than a million users and facilitated insurance for 100K of those.

Link

ChapChap, Uganda

Digitizing MSMEs and extending financial services to last-mile clients

Digitizing micro-enterprises with a simple accounting system and giving them access to different financial services based on data and trust scores. ChapChap agents can offer bill payments, mobile money and airtime to their customers to expand their business and qualify for unsecured loans based on data.

ChapChap has an agent network of approximately 43K microenterprises that has extended financial services to +5.7M clients.

Link

Mazao hub, tanzania

Hyperlocal soil analytics, daily agronomy guides and farm insights

Mazao Hub, through its network of Farmers Excellence Centers (FECs), provides farmers with a comprehensive, all-in-one platform to boost on-farm productivity. This platform offers AI-powered agronomy services tailored to individual needs, supported by soil testing, and facilitates access to essential inputs, financial services, and reliable offtakers.

Mazao Hub has enabled smallholder farmers to redeuce fertilizer expenditure by 30%, lower synthetic fertilizer usage by 12%, enhance organic fertilizer use by 500%, and increase yields up to 3x.

Link

REXIAL, Uganda

Streamlining payment processes by automating direct debit payments

REXIAL helps people to save and pay their utility bills and school fees automatically. REXIAL has developed a direct debit exchange that allows customers to automate any recurring payments through the Automated Clearing House (ACH) network.

REXIAL is currently operating in a sandbox and has partnered with some of the leading financial service providers in Uganda.

Link