Our History

How we started with our passion for Africa and entrepreneurship

Back in 2019, two Diasporans found themselves in Frankfurt-Germany, with a strong willingness of being able to support their countries of origin. Melanie born from French-German and Malian-Congolese parents, wanted to help somehow the countries where her other family was staying mainly in Congo, Senegal and Mali – while Ian born and raised in Kenya dreamt of supporting change back home in his motherland.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, they realized they were far away but wished to support impact sustainable development in Africa by building a digital financial bridge between their new home and original home. This would see them go on a quest to find amazing change-makers that could locally transform the African continent with the support of the right knowledge and resources. They put together their expertise and network from sustainable finance and entrepreneurship to give birth to the Tuungane Program.

The Problem

Africa is facing the triple challenge of climate change, inequality and post-pandemic economic recovery. Yet, the SDG funding gap still stands at $1,300b with only 30% of African private capital disbursed towards social and green businesses.

This deficit of private finance is due to lack of a bankable deal pipeline, mainly consisting of small and informal businesses

The Tuungane Foundation developed financial literacy & sustainability programs, called “Tuungane” aimed at supporting entrepreneurs in their journey to Net-Zero and access to finance.

The Solution

Let’s Unite
to build today
the Africa We Want tomorrow

Tuungane in Kiswahili means « let’s unite »

A one of a kind program aimed at supporting SMEs operating in Africa to become investable and provide them access to a pathway to finance.

Our team is ready to make change happen in our continent & beyond

Sally Githae-Program Officer

Faith Njoroge - Program Officer in Kenya

Abby Bonello - Creative & Multimedia Officer

Samuel Omondi- Programs Intern

We are supported by our trusted Partners

We are guided by an experience board of directors

Ian Minjire -Chief Executive Officer

Anne Muigai- Professor of Genetics JKUAT

Hussam El Tayeb- Senior Manager Signify

Christopher Ndegwa- Private Equity Associate at Clifford Chance

Titus Nderitu- Executive Director (VP), User Experience Design

Andrew Shiels- Financial Controller AstraZeneca

Sophie Jama Malindi- Women Empowerment Expert

We Educate

Uniting knowledge about access to finance in Africa

Our academy trains entrepreneurs to meet financial and impact standards of investors and lenders. Our curriculum aims at training entrepreneurs on fundraising prerequisite and prepare their access to financial services.

We Advise

Through a 2-month pathway, we aim at formalizing and structuring participants’ businesses in order to strengthen business documentation, improve entrepreneurs’ leadership and soft skills and enhance business strategy and internal processes.

This is achieved in collaboration with experts from various business fields that entrepreneurs can match with directly on the Melanin Kapital climate fintech platform.

We Connect

Our club helps entrepreneurs to network and build synergies with like-minded corporates and potential business partners. We have created a P2P community and organize online and physical networking events through which entrepreneurs get to meet and grow their networks.