Serving Impact Investors to Create Jobs, Bring Hope and Transform Lives.
“So the poor have hope, and injustice shuts its mouth.” Job 5:16
2020 has started like a rocket ship for Talanton. We feel God leading us to strong, job-creating missional business opportunities in East Africa. In Kenya and Uganda this month, I saw dynamic energy and momentum in both countries. I wish you could have been there with me! What made the trip so inspiring was the chance to spend time with faith-driven entrepreneurs who have hearts to grow thriving businesses, create lots of good jobs, and provide God’s shalom where unemployment and hopelessness abound. But they all need growth capital to expand! In most updates, we’ve taken you on a journey to one company or described Talanton’s work and ministry serving them. This update will be different. The number one question of potential donor-investors is “Are there really enough faith-driven companies for Talanton to invest in?” Our answer is a resounding yes! I thought you’d like to hear about the types of enterprises in the earlier stages of our client pipeline. They present the type of promise for the financial, social and spiritual impact that excites us. They fall into the “missing middle” — too big to receive financing from the microfinance sector and too small to be of interest to commercial banks in Africa.
Each company has an impact story:
A solar energy company, already employing a dozen people, installing solar systems for commercial business. Near the equator, their products can meet 30-50% of the energy needs of their clients. One client is a flower farm that employs 1,400 people. That client cuts, packages and ships flowers to London/Europe providing the economic engine for all those jobs.
An organic insecticide company that extracts oils from chrysanthemum flowers in a new plant. In its early days, it already serves thousands of smallholder farmers, but most importantly their model could impact hundreds of thousands of smallholder farmers. The chrysanthemum crop can yield farmers four times as much revenue per acre as alternatives. In the lives of families living on so little that will allow education and hope for a brighter future.
Strong believers with an agricultural company processing and warehousing corn and soy in Uganda. They employ 26 full time and 63 seasonal workers and serve 2,200 farmer households. The ability to warehouse grain can increase sales prices for smallholder farmers by 20% or more, simply by waiting for one or two months post the harvest. This company, with revenue north of $1M this year has plans to help 100,000 families within the next few years.
Nobel Prize winners lend support to Talanton’s mission
“The structure of [Microfinance], which is the source of its success in lending to the poor, is such that we cannot count on it to be a stepping-stone for larger businesses to be created and financed. Finding ways to finance medium-scale enterprises is the next big challenge for finance in developing countries.”
“Poor Economics” by Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo Winners of the 2019 Nobel Prize in Economics
Talanton is blessed with a host of companies right behind this group. What they all have in common is they are led by faith-driven entrepreneurs, they already are or soon will reach millions of dollars in revenues and are or soon will be profitable. They create good jobs and help demonstrate that the holistic gospel can be shared through business.
I’ll end with a non-business story that most touched my heart while in Kampala. I visited African Renewal Ministries and one of their programs, Loving Hearts Babies Home. The orphanage is for babies abandoned by mothers too desperate or too hopeless to be able to keep them. Police confirm that most of the moms are jobless or trapped in the sex trade. The police find babies and bring them to the orphanage. Last year 90 babies were cared for and matched to loving new homes with foster or permanent families. In my prayer there in Kampala, I realized that no mother wants to abandon her baby. These are despairing women because they lack good jobs and hope. Talanton exists, to invest in faith-driven enterprises able to create jobs, bring hope and transform lives. We want to help create a community where everyone can see God’s provision, a way to income and hope that comes from a good job. Please reach out if you’d like to know how you can be involved in this redemptive work of creating jobs and hope by investing in faith-driven entrepreneurs.
Prayer request
Would you join us in praying for the mothers who were so desperate that they abandoned their babies? May they find good jobs and the hope of the gospel. May they be reunited with their children in the months to come.
God’s Blessings, David and The Talanton Team
Create Jobs • Bring Hope • Transform Lives
P.S. Do you know anyone with a passion for tackling poverty and injustice in the developing world? If so, please forward this note and introduce them to Talanton. Together we can help create thousands of good jobs and spread the holistic gospel of Christ. Thanks!