The farm-to-table organic chocolate brand fairafric has secured undisclosed funding from the venture-holding company ThirdWay Capital.
fairafric successfully distributes its premium organic chocolate in Europe and is positioned to enter other African and North American markets. By 2026, fairafric expects to achieve 10X revenue growth, create more than 300 direct, permanent jobs and have close partnerships with 500-plus local farmers trained in sustainable agroforestry practices. The next steps for the company include additional processing lines and food products. Their long-term goal is to generate $100M in revenues and 10,000 jobs.
Globally, chocolate is a $140B industry. Only $7B of this returns to West Africa, primarily through the export of raw cocoa from Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana, which produce more than 65% of the world’s cocoa. By locating the production in Ghana of semi-finished chocolate and a range of branded consumer products, fairafric increases West Africa’s income from cocoa five-fold while creating qualified, well-paid jobs with health insurance, pension schemes and other benefits.
fairfric has attended to each element of the chocolate value chain to bring truly sustainable, high-quality chocolate to consumers at competitive prices. Its solar-powered factory is in one of Ghana’s key cocoa farming regions. Only organic cocoa is used. Packaging is biodegradable. Smallholder farmers are supported in developing agroforestry practices that ensure biodiversity and introducing cash crops to increase family income. Combined, these strategies will result in a carbon-neutral farm-to-consumer process.
Commenting on the funding, Hendrik Reimers, CEO of fairafric, says, “With ThirdWay Capital, we are excited to welcome an investor to the fairafric family who brings along a strong pan-African network and the knowledge needed to scale an impact business in a complex environment.”
ThirdWay Capital invests $300k-$1 mllion into growth-ready SME’s that have a strong capacity for scale and impact. Over the last year, the fund has invested into companies such AgroKings, Ethical Apparel Africa and Rainbow Mobile Networks.
