About Us
Scaled Impact (NPC) is a project development social enterprise based in Johannesburg and Berlin.
Scaled Impact identifies, structures and implements high quality solutions and projects for economic growth in untapped industries throughout Sub-Saharan Africa. We do this on our own account as a project developer and as an advisor to third parties.
We focus (mainly) on projects that create markets for producers across the continent and have the greatest benefit for the poorest people. Despite the popular vision of Africa as the continent of endless, untapped veld there is a serious shortage of land. Either because it is owned and in very small parcels, or it is of too low quality to be cultivated. Where regulation is weak and oversight challenging, as in much of central Africa, farmers are expanding into forests, cutting back trees and reducing habitats and biodiversity. On top of the scarcity of land, yields are among the lowest in the world.
This is changing however and Scaled Impact is part of the solution. We create opportunities to unlock potential, protect biodiversity, make markets and raise incomes by taking a risk role and investing in the early stages, bringing the necessary parties together including site owners, technology specialists, operators and finance providers.
Our goal is a portfolio of commercial investments with high community integration driving long-term economic and social development across Southern Africa.
Our Approach
We take elements from existing development projects, mainly with an agricultural base and take them to scale by embedding them in a commercial framework. These elements can be some variety of the cropping methods developed, the infrastructure used, the processing technologies or storage and logistics concepts. We establish the agricultural and economic viability of potential projects and work with communities and partners in the value chain to structure operating models.
During the period of ramp up and growth from pilot status to full scale operation we provide end-to-end value chain co-ordination. This addresses the fundamental market failure that smaller scale farmers and supporting projects lack the scale and organization to be able to take their pilot projects and the lessons they have learned to the point where they have sustained revenues and bankable business cases. We fill this gap and in so doing create a pipeline of projects and cases for both development and commercial finance institutions to support.
Our own projects, our own risk, our own drive.
Our People
Our team has built and run businesses and development programmes across Africa, Europe and Latin America
We have expertise in development strategy, project structuring, finance & industrial innovation
We have the capabilities, drive and long-term perspective needed to get value chains in Africa working.
Martin Sprott
Director
Martin studied law and international political economy, both at the London School of Economics. He then went on to build the Africa practice of A.T. Kearney, advising organizations across the continent in telecoms, energy, mining and manufacturing.
He has worked as a commodity trader, a strategy consultant and has been managing director of an electronics company.
Martin has worked with large companies, government agencies and multilateral organizations across Europe, Africa and Asia to create new businesses, to restructure operations, to become more sustainable and to serve people better.
He is a non-resident fellow of the Global Public Policy Institute.
Chelsea Paull
Director
Chelsea studied sociology at the University of Johannesburg, sustainable development at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London and human development and food security at University Roma Tre, Rome.
Her focus is on agricultural and sustainable social development initiatives. She has supported numerous projects for groups including the World Food Programme, the Carbon Advisory Service and Food & Trees for Africa.
Chelsea has particular interest and expertise in project development that supports rural communities, benefiting smaller players in value chains to improve overall food security.
Florian Willfort
Director
Florian studied engineering at the Technical University in Graz and postgraduate Industrial Engineering at the ETH University Zurich. He worked for twenty three years at Nestle on international assignments. First 8 years in production operations improvement, then 4 years leading Nestle's ice cream businesses in Panama and Dominican Republic, then 7 years in corporate strategic innovation management, 2 years leading a product development team at the food technology centre, and finally 2 years leading the Southern Africa Innovation Management team.
Florian has a passion for value chain structuring and optimization around smaller players for maximum combined development and environmental impact.
Kudzai Chiviya
Manager
Kudzai holds an Honours degree in Econometrics and a Masters in Local Economic development from the University of Johannesburg.
He has an entrepreneurial background having been involved in the formation of a number of business ventures and starting his own logistics business. He has experience in business development in the automotive industry working for CNH Industrial South Africa.
Kudzai has a keen interest in business and economic development.
Kim Sanssoucie
Manager
Kim has over 10 years’ experience in project management and SME development within the Creative & Cultural industries. She led a scaling up programme at an arts non-profit enabling access to markets for creative entrepreneurs and SMEs.
She holds an MBA from GIBS Business School and Bocconi University with a BA in Media, Communications and Dramatic Arts from the University of KwaZulu-Natal.
Before joining Scaled Impact, Kim built the strategy and governance models for an African EdTech Think Tank.
Kim is passionate about African development and enrichment of marginalised communities.
Fellowship Programme
Once a year, we run a fellowship programme. Fellowships are offered to mid-career candidates from a private sector background looking for an introduction to the development world. The base duration of the programme is 12 weeks but may be extended depending on availability and project structuring. Applications open end of March 2023.
Work with us
Think you have something unique to bring to our team?