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How Verdant Frontiers Streamlined its Fundraising Processes

crops in Africa

With a three-pronged approach focused on real estate, agriculture, and Africa’s booming tech sector, Verdant Frontiers works to create sustainable, life-changing jobs while generating compelling investment returns.

Verdant Frontiers recently turned to Family Office List to help expand its fundraising base and improve fundraising efficiency.

Successful Outcomes

  • Improving fundraising efficiency by allowing Verdant to target investors who have expressed interest in its offerings
  • Establishing stronger and more significant partner relationships to expand Verdant’s reach to family offices

“We have investment opportunities where investors don’t have to choose between making a life-changing impact and getting financial returns. A lot of people see those as mutually exclusive … we think that the best investments in the best businesses are both.”

Scott Friesen, Founder and CEO of Verdant Frontiers

The Client: Verdant Frontiers

Verdant Frontiers aims to become the Berkshire Hathaway of Africa, with three areas of focus: real estate, agriculture, and technology

Verdant Frontiers began its work in Africa after the U.S. Embassy identified a pressing need for high-security African housing from both a seismic and a safety perspective. Within just a few years, Verdant Frontiers filled this gap by developing a 90-unit compound in Kenya and a 112-unit compound in Ethiopia.

Verdant Frontiers also has acquired two 1000+ acre citrus and avocado farms with a goal of building a portfolio of commercial farms in Africa growing citrus, avocado, and nuts. Over the next decade, Verdant Frontiers hopes to create 30,000 orchard jobs and grow this portfolio to a $1 billion value.

Finally, Verdant Frontiers has deployed a three-prong approach to participate in Africa’s expanding FinTech industry.

  • Operating a FinTech venture capital fund
  • Operating a startup studio to develop technology to fill gaps in the market
  • Acquiring a financial institution to create a middle-class mortgage market

This multifaceted model allows Verdant Frontiers to fully immerse itself in the African industry, creating jobs and generating value for investors.

The Challenge: Improving Efficiency While Continuing Expansion

After raising more than $140 million from investors, Verdant Frontiers found its fundraising and outreach processes were becoming more time-consuming.

And with the increased public interest in social impact investing, Verdant Frontiers knew that to move to the next level, it needed to streamline.

This meant targeting family offices instead of just individual investors to provide a broader distribution of opportunities and create new partner relationships.

The Solution: Joining the Family Office Ecosystem

Family Office List quickly connected Verdant Frontiers to other service partners that were already part of the Family Office List “ecosystem.” With one partner company regularly pitching to family offices, and another specializing in family office digital marketing, these connections have already laid the groundwork for tangible rewards.

One unique benefit Verdant Frontiers quickly realized was that Family Office List’s data allowed the company to shift from “cold pitching” to marketing its unique investments to those who have expressed interest.

According to Scott Friesen, Co-Founder at Verdant Frontiers, “the prospecting comes through our network of relationships, but you just never know, what’s a good fit? Who is interested in investing in Africa? And so, being able to filter the list [of family offices] and have people that have a stated interest in investing in a particular region is really helpful.”

Verdant Frontiers also appreciated getting a detailed list of contacts within each family office. Not only did Family Office List provide Verdant Frontiers with basic office demographics like assets under management and focus areas, but it also allowed the company to review family office contacts to see whether any existing connection points were available. This information helped Verdant Frontiers create relationships with these offices more organically—a good starting point for a long-lasting partnership.

While Verdant Frontiers partnered with Family Office List only recently, its founders remain confident that the relationships they’re building now will help them push their innovative company into the next frontier of social impact investing.

In Summary

Verdant Frontiers reached out to Family Office List with a unique problem—it had raised capital from so many individual investors that its outreach process was becoming less and less efficient. By working with Family Office List, Verdant Frontiers was able to target more family offices and target family offices that have a specific interest in the investments that Verdant Frontiers offers. This strategy will likely allow the company to raise more capital without pitching to more clients.

If you’d like to learn more about Family Office List and how your company can benefit from its well-researched client lists, please contact us today. Our services are uniquely tailored to each partner’s needs, and we’ll work with you to identify your goals and help you achieve them.