Apply for Kgodiso Development Fund – South Africa

The Fund aims to support the broad socioeconomic imperatives of education, SMMEs, emerging farmers and enterprise development across PepsiCo’s value chain.

Kgodiso Fund Strategic Priorities

• To support the transformation of the food & beverage value chain by developing and empowering new and current black emerging businesses (​e.g., farmers, suppliers, business solution providers, distributors, women-led enterprises).
• To address knowledge and skills gaps across the South African food system (e.g., applied agriculture R&D, climate resilient crop development, capacity-building in STEM professions, circular economy business models, nutrition science).
• To tackle local development challenges and strive for tangible impact that affects large-scale change by providing funding to enable sustainable crop production, technical and business support through strategic partnerships and programs.

What offerings does the KDF provide?

• The fund offers black-owned enterprises (e.g. farming and suppliers) operating across the Food & Beverage value chain the resources to grow from a state of emerging to commercial viability. These include farmers, other suppliers of raw materials, distributors, retailers, packaging suppliers, co-manufacturers and co-packagers.
• The fund also offers black-owned startups that have innovations in areas of Agri (Tech) Solutions, Affordable Nutrition and Sustainable Packaging the opportunity to participate in an Innovation Challenge. Startups are selected to participate in an accelerator program and receive financial support for their business

What kind of support does the Fund give beneficiaries?

• Applicants can request debt funding as well as technical support from a number of the partners. This ranges from commodity specific production advice and farm management to business model development and scaling market access for distribution partners.

Who can apply to the Fund and for what?

• The fund is looking forward to supporting enterprises within the South African food system during open application windows. The funding available will be low-interest debt alongside technical support and assistance, as required.
• The applicant needs to be legally registered and be able to provide a historical record of operational success. In addition, they will be looking for B-BBEE contribution levels and 51% black ownership structure.
• Distributors, retailers, co-manufacturers, co-packagers and packaging.

For more information, visit PepsiCo.