If Africa will rise to take its place as the world’s most arable continent, efforts to restore the fast degrading forestry and ensure a sustainable utilization of forestry resources is imperative. This is the mission behind Komaza, a tech-enabled, sustainable forestry startup focusing on ways to help restore wasted lands in the continent. To this end, Komaza has secured a first close of $28m of the company’s planned $33m Series B equity financing to plant one billion trees by 2030, benefiting over 2 million farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa and doubling existing tree cover across all operating landscapes.
Komaza says the Series A was co-led by Novastar LPs AXA Investment Managers through the AXA Impact Fund: Climate & Biodiversity, and the Dutch development bank FMO, with further participation by Mirova’s Land Degradation Neutrality Fund. According to Tevis Howard, Komaza’s Founder and CEO, “At Komaza, our vision is to become Africa’s largest forestry company, by partnering with farmers to provide a sustainable and hyper-scalable domestic supply of wood. As a result, farmers get a climate-resilient, zero-risk, source of wealth creation for their families, and investors get commercial returns, all while relieving the intense pressure on remaining natural forests.”
The Kenya-based company has planted over 6 million trees with 25,000 smallholder farmers to date, with annual plantings nearly doubling Kenya’s rate of commercial tree planting. Komaza’s “microforestry” model represents a paradigm shift in the industry from large, costly plantations to distributed partnerships with local farmers. This shift yields an 80% cost disruption vs traditional plantations for every acre planted, while unlocking dramatically more land for forestry activities, especially those held by farmers around major cities.
While distributed operations increase management complexity, Komaza has tackled these planning and coordination challenges using AI and satellite data to map existing tree growth and real-time mobile apps on the ground to track farmer progress.
Kelechi Deca
Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry