Pyramidia Ventures – Building agrifood ventures in Kenya and beyond
Pyramidia Ventures is a venture studio dedicated to ideating, building, and scaling climate-positive startups across the agrifood value-chain in Kenya. Their mission is to provide nutritious and affordable food for a growing population in a way that regenerates nature. Operating on the principle of "fail fast and learn quickly", Pyramidia adapts globally proven technology to the African context, generating and selecting the most promising ideas to develop in-house, ranging from drone services to spirulina farming. Their step-by-step venture building process includes phases from idea, to pilot, to build, to scale. Pyramidia attracts co-founders to lead its ideas at different stages in the process. This approach aims to build investable, climate-focused early-stage businesses to transition to a sustainable agrifood system, creating a pipeline of investable opportunities for climate investors.
The first spin-off from the studio is Stable Foods, offering irrigation-as-a-service to smallholder farmers by creating economies of scale, making irrigation accessible for even tiny plots of land at an affordable price.
Pyramidia's mindful venture design focuses on companies and ideas that integrate the local context and consider community needs, ultimately generating positive impact in the regions where their ventures operate. Pyramidia emphasizes capacity building by empowering local talent, ensuring businesses are commercially attractive from an end-user perspective while positively impacting communities. This specialization positions Pyramidia as a unique venture studio in the market, providing a clear value-add for co-founders looking to build within the studio.
There are several benefits to this strategy: it establishes a clear brand identity for co-founders, attracts investors and talent interested in the sector, and creates a distinctive compounding effect, allowing Pyramidia to quickly leverage learnings across subsequent ventures.
Investment
DGGF commits a funding of USD 1.3 million and Technical Assistance/Business Development support of USD 200.000.
Sectors
Food security, agritech
Image: © Pyramidia Ventures