76 applicants eligible for HEVA’s EA creative business fund – KBC

The 76 will receive USD 20,000 and USD 50,000, over a maximum period of 4 years

HEVA’s East Africa Creative Business Fund (EACBF) is a patient loan facility available from 2021 onwards to successful applicants through debt investments of between USD 20,000 and USD 50,000, over a maximum period of 4 years.

The fund, which is a timely response to the loss of resources and opportunities for creatives during the COVID-19 pandemic, has announced a receipt of 76 eligible applications out of a total of 430 applications from Kenya (248), Uganda (59), Ethiopia (33), Tanzania (30) and Rwanda (60). All the aforementioned applications were submitted between September and October 2020, when the call for EACBF was officially opened.

76 of all the 430 applications are eligible for the fund, having met its specific requirements: a business’s annual revenue of no less than USD 20,000, and a minimum of one employee (part-time or full time). All the eligible applicants are registered and operational in the East African countries as follows: Kenya (40), Ethiopia (4), Uganda (11), Tanzania (7) and Rwanda (14). Out of these firms, 28 are female-owned or run, while 43 are owned/run by men. 5 applicants preferred not to state their gender. The value chain distribution was as follows: Crafts (3), Cultural Education (4), Cultural Infrastructure (3), Cultural Tourism (4), Digital Media (10), Events (1), Fashion (21), Film and Photography (9), Food (7), Interior (3), Live Music (4), Music Production (6) and Hair and Beauty (1).

The successful applications will undergo several stages: the business panel to look at the viability of these businesses; a creative panel that will look at the products and market fit; and then a pitch panel that will interrogate the businesses deeper to better understand their alignment to the criteria of the fund.

Wakiuru Njuguna, HEVA Partner and Investment Manager says, “HEVA is committed to allocating capital to the creative sector, and we are particularly excited about being able to expand to the rest of East Africa especially at a time like this when availability of capital is limited. We are cognisant of the particular challenges that businesses in this sector face, and a result, we hope that the impact of this facility will be a testament to more capital allocation to East African businesses in the creative sector. Our goal is to commit more capital, as we are looking to raise 20M USD for the regional sector in the next three years.”