Mango Fund

13/04/2016

Will you be attending the Agripreneur Summit organized by the American Chamber of Commerce of Uganda next week?

Mango Fund looks forward to see you there!

http://www.amchamuganda.co.ug/event/generation-agri-preneur-summit-expo/

The American Chamber of Commerce of Uganda (AmCham) is hosting its 2nd Annual Generation AgriPreneur Summit & Expo in Kampala, Uganda. In keeping with our Earth Day tradition, it will take place on 19-21 April, 2016, the week preceding Earth Day.

04/03/2016

At Mango Fund we are currently expanding and looking to hire people to filling the following positions to join our team in Kampala.

- Investment Officer
- Investment Analyst

Please get more information through our website to how to apply. http://www.mangofund.org/careers/

14/01/2016

One of our previous client by the name of Malaika Honey is currently running a campaign on Indiegogo to purchase and renovate their honey centre. So far we have saved $45,000USD and need a further 260,000USD, with your support you will become a benefactor of this great initiative.

The honey center through their value chain creates jobs and wealth for thousands of Ugandans without work. Beekeeping is a valuable positive environmental impact as they teach farmers to plant trees as nectar source who are actively involved when they learn how important it is to feed their bees.

The processing centre will not only provide the processing and packaging of the honey but it will a common place where farmers meet and exchange practices on beekeeping.

Your support will be highly welcomed. Please follow the link for more details.

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/honey-center-for-ugandan-rural-beekeepers--2 #/

We seek to establish a honey resource center for beekeepers to process and pack honey | Crowdfunding is a democratic way to support the fundraising needs of your community. Make a contribution today!

22/12/2015

Work for Life, entrepreneur, poverty, uganda, kenya, africa, social justice.

16/12/2015

This is awesome!

The BBC's Akwasi Sarpong asks if Uganda can work out how to deal with the bureaucracy which could be hindering the country's fledging start-up apps hub.

11/12/2015

We are very proud of one of our best clients, Prudence and Godfrey from Bella Wines. Bella Wines is Uganda's only 100% organic wine made from tropical fruits. Prudence started the company over 10 years ago with a small investment of 100,000 UGX and sold wine in Jerry Cans to offices to get her product into the market. Now, Bella Wine is sold in every supermarket in Uganda, and she has expansion plans into Kenya, Rwanda, and the DRC. She attributes her success to working as if everything could be taken away tomorrow, dealing honestly with people, marketing aggressively, and making a quality product. These pictures show several of the awards Prudence has won this year, including Best Manufacturer, Best Female Entrepreneur, and Peoples Choice Award.

10/12/2015

A great update from our Director of the Women's Entrepreneurship Initiative (Liz):

"Yesterday I received one of the best birthday gifts from one of my clients. I met with Dr. Damali and Dr. Andabati of Bethany Women's Hospital, a fertility and laparoscopic hospital in Kampala that has 50% success rates with IVF treatments (US and Europe only have 25-30%) at 1/10th of the cost that you find in Western countries. They are able to achieve this rate through a very customized approach with each client.

We met to go over a SWOT analysis, and they told me that through our sessions discussing "Accounting for the Numberphobic" and talking through strategy for their business, it saved them from purchasing a 60M UGX ($20K USD) mistake that would have severely hurt their business. They had some savings and were thinking about buying a very slick ambulance for marketing purposes, as all of their friends were suggesting that they do.

After reading "Accounting for the Numberphobic" by Dawn Fotopulos and working through their learnings with me, they realized that this purchase would actually not help the business at all, since most of their clients were not emergencies and it would end up just being parked in front of the hospital most of the time. They would have paid nearly $20K for a parking space!!! Instead, they diverted funds to a creating a children's clinic nearby that would extend their services from the women to the children they've helped bring to this world. The clinic is now close to breaking even and helping bring more patients to Bethany Hospital.

Their words - "Understanding the numbers and overcoming our numberphobia has saved our business and put it in the right direction. We related with the quotes in the front of the book - numbers used to want to make us curl up into fetal positions, which as fertility doctors, was a very accurate image. Now, we don't need an accountant to explain our statements to us and look forward to our audited statements. It's actually become like a game!"

04/12/2015

Women entrepreneurs, take a look at this!!!

A number of organisations encourage women empowerment through education at different levels by offering specific scholarships for African women...

04/12/2015

Calling all Social Entrepreneurs in East Africa! We don't recommend many organizations, but Unreasonable East Africa is at the top of our list. Only a few hours left to apply to be a 2016 Fellow!

Apply Applications are open! APPLY NOW Location: Kampala, Uganda Dates: April 2016 (Exact dates to be confirmed) Goal: Help early/idea-stage entrepreneurs rapidly identify and validate the foundational assumptions of their business. Open to companies that: Are idea/early stage Operate in Kampala, Ug…

17/11/2015

One of the most special times at Mango Fund is getting to see firsthand the effect our financial support on SMEs in Uganda. Liz Lindow, the Director of the Women’s Entrepreneurship Initiative, visited with one of our women owned businesses Kyogo Mazinga StoneKraft. StoneKraft specializes in stone veneers for building and designs. Before Mango Fund, they were unable to fulfill large projects due to limited capacity, although their quality projects were often sought after by commercial projects throughout East Africa. Thanks to the Mango Fund loan, they were able to buy the equipment needed to get the contracts for larger orders. Liz was with two of the Kyogo Mazinga directors the moment they got the call from a Rwandan project to say the contract had been finalized and the initial deposit had been made into their account. The picture shows their faces realizing their dreams for their business is starting to come true. Now the real work begins! This project stands to quadruple the size of their business, allowing them to train and employ more local Ugandans in technical skills. Congratulations Sharon and Joshua and the rest of the Kyogo Mazinga team. Mango Fund is proud to be your partner!

11/11/2015

Are you interested in Bee keeping and Apiary in general? One of Mango Fund's past clients, Malaika Honey, is conducting a beekeeping training workshop this month. For more details please reach out to them through their page or contact them by calling +256 (0) 702326202.

07/11/2015

Financial literacy is very important to growing your business. Having your books in order and understanding how those numbers drive your business are very important to Investors. They are the keys to opening up their wallets!

Stop making excuses for not understanding financial documents