Our Approach

We believe that business and capital markets can be a tremendous force for positive social change in Africa

There is no question that a wave of entrepreneurship is rising across Africa. At Athari, our mission is to provide opportunities to young African entrepreneurs that are intentional about the way they want to give back to the continent. By making these types of investments, we make money more effective at creating value for society. 

We Invest in companies that:

• Demonstrate intent to have social impact

• Measure against a set of metrics, set by the company

• Are committed to regularly reporting their social progress 

Our investment philosophy can be summarized as ‘market rate with impact’ – we go through the process of due diligence on investments, and expect rates like traditional funds with the addition of a social impact filter.

Our overall impact theme at Athari is opportunity creation which we use as the foundation for our investment thesis across five sectors 

IDENTIFY

We look at investments in a comprehensive way, analysing the intersection of social and market factors. We integrate impact analysis throughout the due diligence process and appreciate the two major ways a company can have impact. 

We make use of our impact screening rubric (illustrated on the right) to give us a better assessment of the quality of  societal impact an investment opportunity is able to generate. 

ASSESS

TRACK

We work with the leadership teams of our partner companies to develop a list of metrics based on the standardized IRIS metrics for measuring social impact (more information at iris.thegiin.org/metrics).

These metrics can be broadly grouped into:

E.g Education company

Output -  increase in the number of people who can purchase cheaper books

Outcome - access to books translates into increased test scores and eventual increase in graduation rates