Investment Strategy
Growing Breakthrough Businesses
SpringHill targets breakthrough business serving base-of-the-pyramid (BoP) markets in East Africa, offering attractive financial returns and demonstrable social benefit at scale. Given the profound differences in household incomes and technology infrastructure, simply adopting western technologies and business models in Africa does not work. Product and service innovation in communications, energy and financial services show exciting promise for both consumers and investors. SpringHill invests in companies delivering products and services that transform the lives of the poor through improved information, productivity, health and household economics.
Breakthrough businesses...
- Grow rapidly to scale by meeting BoP market demand for basic goods and services:
- Satisfying latent demand, not perceived needs
- Joining, shaping and expanding existing markets rather than seeking to create new ones
- Addressing the twin problems of access and affordability
- Widen market access
- Reduce cost and price to the consumer
- Improve quality
Innovate business models and adapt technologies to profitably:
Thereby generate attractive financial returns and very large scale social benefits to BoP consumers.
In East Africa
SpringHill focuses investment activity in east African countries based on the following considerations:
- Regional coherence, enabling us to manage investments efficiently from two regional nodes
- Diversification, managing country and sector risk
- Economic vitality, favoring high-growth economies
- Market size – both national and regional
- Rule of law and property rights, ensuring we can protect shareholder interests
- Exit viability
- Existence of a trusted network and existing deal flow