Investors
USD 4.5 million blended-finance opportunity with strong additionality, demonstrable Paris-alignment and a projected equity IRR of 22.4 per cent over the ten-year hold. Senior debt covered 1.6× at base case.
Investment thesis
Zimbabwe imports more than USD 18 million of processed tomato products annually. Mutomato displaces a meaningful share at delivered cost — a hard-currency margin moat.
Energy is the largest opex line in any processing plant. A 500 kW solar-plus-storage asset insulates the business from grid instability and tariff escalation.
Fifteen hundred contracted outgrowers under fixed-price forwards de-risk feedstock volume and price across the agronomic cycle.
No commercial bank in Zimbabwe is currently financing similar-scale solar-integrated processing plants. The transaction is genuinely catalytic.
Strategic agri-processors, regional consolidators and impact secondaries provide multiple credible exit routes by year seven.
Designed to meet the 2X Challenge criteria — targeting 2X Challenge qualification at close — alongside Paris-aligned classification, a rare combination at this transaction size.
Capital stack
A blended structure that pairs concessional and senior tranches with catalytic and development equity — sized to deliver additionality whilst preserving pari passu protections for commercial participants. Priority funding institutions have been identified for engagement; allocations below are indicative.
| Tranche | Indicative source | Instrument | USD | % | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Project equity | External catalytic equity + Afroglobal development equity | Common | 675,000 | 15% | Open |
| Senior debt | Norfund | Senior loan | 900,000 | 20% | Identified |
| Senior debt | British International Investment | Senior loan | 810,000 | 18% | Identified |
| Mezzanine | FMO | Subordinated | 765,000 | 17% | Identified |
| Climate concessional | SEFA / AfDB | Concessional loan | 540,000 | 12% | Identified |
| Catalytic grant | AECF | Performance grant | 450,000 | 10% | Identified |
| Climate co-finance | GEF | Grant | 360,000 | 8% | Identified |
Named institutions are priority funding institutions identified for engagement on the basis of mandate fit; no application, mandate letter or term sheet is implied unless expressly stated. The sponsor's shareholding is structured as development equity — contributed in kind, subject to independent valuation, and earned against verified project-development milestones — with the cash component of the equity tranche sought from external catalytic investors.
Returns & coverage
Production economics
The base case is built bottom-up from operating days, intake, conversion ratios and product mix — with a designed Phase 2 expansion beyond twenty tonnes per day. The figures below are the reconciliation an investment committee will test first; the full model is available in the data room.
Steady-state utilisation across staggered planting calendars in the Mutoko–Mudzi–Murewa corridor, with scheduled maintenance windows in the off-peak months.
Twenty tonnes per day of raw fruit at full Phase 1 ramp — approximately four tonnes per contracted outgrower per year.
The plant is designed for expansion to forty tonnes per day from year four, funded from operating cash flow and the mandatory-expansion capex line in the model.
| Product line | Raw fruit (t) | Conversion | Finished (t) | Indicative price (USD/t) | Revenue (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bulk aseptic paste (Brix 28–30) | 3,000 | ~6 : 1 | 500 | 1,300 | 650,000 |
| Retail sauces (paste-based) | 4,200 | ~2 : 1 | 2,100 | 2,000 | 4,200,000 |
| Purées (Brix 8–12) | 4,800 | ~1.5 : 1 | 3,200 | 950 | 3,040,000 |
| Year-5 total (Phase 2) | 12,000 | 5,800 | ~7,900,000 |
Year-five revenue of approximately USD 7.9 million at a 24 per cent EBITDA margin supports the USD 1.9 million year-five EBITDA. Supply-side reconciliation: 1,500 contracted outgrowers at an average of ~0.32 ha of contracted tomato plots and ~25 t/ha under drip fertigation deliver ~12,000 t at Phase 2 (Phase 1 requires ~0.16 ha per outgrower), with any seasonal shortfall covered by vetted spot procurement within the corridor. Conversion ratios, prices and mix are base-case assumptions, stress-tested in the downside scenario in the financial model.
Use of proceeds
| Category | Description | USD | % of total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Processing plant | Italian-spec line, civils, MEP, commissioning | 2,025,000 | 45% |
| Solar & storage | 500 kW PV, 1.2 MWh battery, BoS, racking | 810,000 | 18% |
| Outgrower programme & 10 hubs | 10 boreholes with solar pumps, drip kits, seed/fertiliser revolving fund, hub-level agronomy and MIS | 540,000 | 12% |
| Land & site works | Completion of site purchase under binding sale agreement, perimeter, access road, water | 360,000 | 8% |
| Working capital | First-season raw material, packaging, payroll | 450,000 | 10% |
| Contingency & DSRA | 10% contingency + debt-service reserve | 315,000 | 7% |
| Total | 4,500,000 | 100% |
Risk & mitigation
USD-denominated revenues from regional offtake and import-substitution pricing hedge against ZWL volatility. Hard-currency reserves held offshore.
Diversified across 1,500 outgrowers and three cooperatives. Drip irrigation and weather-indexed insurance buffer drought risk.
500 kW captive solar with battery autonomy plus grid fallback. Diesel genset as final tier of redundancy during commissioning.
LoIs in place with two regional supermarket chains and one institutional offtaker. Export gateway via Beira and Beitbridge.
Fixed-price EPC with reputable Italian-Zimbabwean consortium. Ten per cent contingency and liquidated-damages provisions.
Political-risk insurance (MIGA or equivalent) identified as a mitigation, to be pursued alongside senior-debt engagement. ZIDA project status confers tax holidays and customs concessions.