What’s on Goodwell’s radar? - July 2025

Our 2024 Impact Report is out now! In it, we reflect on the impact made by Goodwell’s work last year, and on the resilience required to do so. You can read (and share) the report here to see the positive differences our portfolio is making on the ground. In the meantime, our industry peers have also been creating valuable food for thought that’s kept our team reading and informed:

Changing priorities: selling earlier and increasing liquidity

A little while ago, we shared the first in a series of blogs about exits and exit strategies. Of course investors want more exits, but an interesting story is developing – particularly in the US – with potential implications for exits across the investment industry: it is increasingly common  for LPs in American seed and VC funds to demand early exits and increased liquidity. This interesting trend (an understandable one, given the political and economic uncertainty hanging over the Trump administration) could have implications for the global investment sector’s approach to LP propositions, portfolio screening, and exit planning.

As aid collapses, can Africa rise?

As USAID withdraws from its programs, and other development organisations struggle to fill the aid gaps, we endorse the view that this also presents Africa with a potentially historic opportunity. Goodwell has spent much of our time in recent months encouraging existing and new investors to step up their commitment to the continent and to invest in fostering the continent’s innovative entrepreneurship. We are not alone in this call, of course, and the message is spreading further and growing louder. African Business recently published a pragmatic and rousing opinion piece by Frank Mwiti and Chris Maranga, examining how the continent could turn this moment from disastrous policy shift to sustainable, inclusive investments that foster independence, accountability, and dignity.

Logistics innovations solving African – and global – problems

Crucial to enabling this vision for African sufficiency, is to enable African efficiency. Nigeria’s Business Day took a closer look at innovations happening in mobility and logistics – including those of our own portfolio company, MAX – and the implications they could have for Africa and the world. Embracing innovation to “do more with less”, African companies are demonstrating how to build effective logistics solutions that are resilient, cost effective, and accessible.

African food systems as an asset class

Another article making its way around our team chat this month is this interesting blog by Dr. Maxwell Ampong. He writes a concise and compelling case for investing in Africa’s food value chains, arguing that we need to view food security not just as a humanitarian issue, but also as economic infrastructure. From production and storage to insurance and fintech to last-mile delivery (like MAX, also mentioned above), there are highly investable innovations throughout Africa’s food ecosystem, each of which has huge impact and returns potential.