The Aquarius Foundation mobilizes and deploys philanthropic and catalytic capital into social enterprises and mission-driven businesses that improve economic stability, access to healthcare, education, and community resilience across Sub-Saharan Africa.
We help African social enterprises access the right capital at the right time. From investor identification and outreach to due diligence and close, we work alongside you to connect your enterprise to funders who share your values and understand your market.
Learn moreEvery enterprise in our portfolio has been personally vetted. Whether you deploy through equity, debt, concessional instruments, or grants, we can connect you to ventures that match your mandate.
View portfolioWe help vetted social enterprises across Sub-Saharan Africa access aligned capital from US$250K to US$5M, including equity, debt, concessional instruments, grants, and program-related investments.
We begin by learning your business at the deepest level: your model, traction, team, and vision. Then we study the raise itself, including the amount, instrument, timeline, and the specific type of investor who will be the right fit, both financially and in terms of values.
From there, we go to work on your behalf. No cold outreach. Every introduction we make is warm, targeted, and directed at investors with an Africa-inclusive mandate who are actively deploying into your stage and sector.
Deep Discovery
Learn your business, understand your raise, define your ideal investor profile
Investor Targeting
Identify aligned investors from our mapped network of 650+ impact investors, including philanthropists, foundations, angels, VCs, impact funds, DFIs, and family offices
Outreach and Pitching
Pitch on your behalf, make targeted introductions, and set up initial screening calls with qualified investors
Due Diligence and Close
Support you through data room preparation, financial review, and term sheet negotiation, all the way through to close
Sub-Saharan Africa's working-age population will double from 600 million to over 1.3 billion by 2050. It will be the largest workforce expansion in human history. By 2040, more than 20 million young people will enter the economy every single year. Today, the formal economy creates roughly 3 million net new jobs. Even if that doubles, the gap still exceeds 10 million people annually, for a generation.
This is also the opportunity. Most of the world is aging. Sub-Saharan Africa is the only region on earth where the labor force, the consumer base, and the entrepreneurial class are all expanding at this scale, at the same time. The enterprises that get capitalized now are positioned at the front of a generational wave of economic growth.
Small and medium enterprises already employ 80% of the region's workforce, and they are also the most underfinanced. The IFC estimates a $331 billion SME financing gap across Sub-Saharan Africa. These are businesses generating revenue, creating jobs, and solving problems that matter. Most need between US$20,000 and US$500,000 to scale. The average development finance transaction is $56.9 million. The system was built for a different scale.
Jobs must be created annually across Sub-Saharan Africa to absorb workforce growth, and that is a conservative number. The difference between an SME that fails in its first two years and one that survives, grows, and hires is access to the right capital at the right time. This is where we operate.
The capital exists. The entrepreneurs exist. The gap between them is one of the defining economic challenges of our time. We believe it is solvable. Sub-Saharan Africa is home to 15% of the world's population and the youngest workforce on earth, yet receives only 3.5% of global foreign direct investment. Philanthropy is the missing piece: catalytic capital that helps early-stage enterprises become ready for commercial and institutional investment. Patient, flexible financing deployed with discipline into the precise moment where it shapes a company's trajectory, repaid as businesses grow, then recycled into the next enterprise.
We apply a gender lens across the portfolio, targeting 40% or more women-led or women-owned enterprises. Below is a snapshot of the ventures we are actively mobilizing capital for.
Interested in our deal flow? Reach out to learn more about any of these ventures.
Michael founded The Aquarius Foundation from a clear conviction: the world does not lack capital. It lacks better pathways for deploying that capital where it can do the most good. He works across philanthropy, impact investing, and venture support, helping align investors, donors, and catalytic partners with opportunities positioned to create lasting social and economic value across Sub-Saharan Africa.
As Executive Director, Michael leads end-to-end fundraising advisory for vetted African enterprises. He applies a gender lens that targets 40% or more women-led or women-owned enterprises, with impact measurement anchored to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, the GIIN's IRIS+ catalogue, the IMP Five Dimensions, and the 2X Challenge gender-lens criteria.
Before founding TAF, Michael spent nearly a decade as a food entrepreneur and COO of a pioneering cacao company, where he built and managed ethical supply chains across Latin America, led international expansion, and oversaw operations, logistics, and finance. That hands-on experience building businesses is what makes him effective at representing the entrepreneurs he works with today.
To date, Michael has worked with over a dozen organizations, managed over US$30M in fundraising, mapped 650+ impact investors, and grown an audience of nearly 12K followers as a thought leader in African impact capital. He holds a degree in Biological and Biomedical Sciences from Western Michigan University and serves as an Ambassador for THE REAL Mental Health Foundation.
Whether you lead a social enterprise seeking capital, a funder looking for vetted opportunities, or someone who believes in this mission, we would like to hear from you.