<h1 style="text-align:center;">A Look at RENEW’s Portfolio</h1>Ever wanted to meet the faces behind RENEW’s portfolio companies? Take a few minutes and watch our video featuring a sampling of RENEW’s entrepreneurs and their companies and hear about the impact being created post-investment. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlNi1MWQvk0">Link to Youtube Video</a>.<figure class="image"><img src="/uploads/youtube_1_7c58987301.png"></figure>As of December 31, 2018, the Impact Angel Network portfolio is made up of ten incredible companies in East Africa. The portfolio has created 1,452 jobs, and supported more than 5,700 smallholder farmers. Be sure to check out our <a href="https://www.renewcapital.com/portfolio">portfolio page</a> for a snapshot of all our companies.Be sure to also check out RENEW’s <a href="https://latest-api.renewcapital.com/uploads/RENE_Ws_2019_2020_Impact_Report_7f2975da8d.pdf">Annual Impact Report</a>, “A Journey of Impact”, which gives an overview of the impact of our entire portfolio, as well as a deep dive into one company, Desta PLC, a garments manufacturing facility. This edition explores various aspects of the impact of the company from the perspective of several stakeholders. Everyone’s story is different, but each individual plays a key role in the growth and impact of this company that is a leader in the fast-growing textile industry in Ethiopia.

A short clip featuring a sampling of RENEW’s portfolio.

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A Look at RENEW’s Portfolio

<h1 style="text-align:center;">2019 in Review and a Sneak Peek at 2020!</h1>As we start off the new year and decade, it’s one of our traditions at RENEW to look back at the last 12 months and ahead to the next. February 2020 will mark eight years RENEW and the IAN have been in Ethiopia. Before we arrived, there was one PE firm, now there are over a dozen. RENEW’s <a href="https://www.renewcapital.com/what-we-do/investing">Impact Angel Network</a> is the most active SME investment group in Ethiopia, and we have already achieved two exits! Before the IAN, most of the private sector had no option for financing. Unless you had a micro-enterprise or a huge company, there was nowhere to get $500K. Now, friends advise entrepreneurial friends to speak with RENEW's angel network or pitch on <a href="http://www.tonetormultimedia.com/">Chigign 'Tobiya</a>, the investment TV show RENEW helped launch. The work is not just happening in Ethiopia and Uganda, but it's happening around the world with the Impact Angel Network. Here are some of the highlights for RENEW in 2019.January - We started the year with our annual partners planning session in Colorado. We also held an Econ-Tourism Trip that took place in Ethiopia, Uganda and Rwanda!February - We held our third round of the <a href="https://www.renewcapital.com/companies">CFO100</a> and <a href="https://www.renewcapital.com/companies">The Exec’s Program</a>. We also funded a second investment in Roadrunner Technology Solutions LLC (Roadrunner), which partners with Universal Courier Services PLC (<a href="https://deliveraddis.com/">Deliver Addis</a>) to expand the burgeoning logistics and e-commerce industries in Ethiopia.March - We celebrated International Women’s Day with an Ode to Africa’s Businesswomen and started making plans for an investment vehicle focused on women.April - RENEW and the Impact Angel Network committed capital to a fund dedicated to investing in women-owned and led companies in Ethiopia and Uganda. RENEW and the IAN designed the fund to address a pressing need to close the financing gap for women-owned companies in Sub-Saharan Africa. We also visited our partners, <a href="https://www.international.gc.ca/gac-amc/index.aspx?lang=eng">Global Affairs Canada</a>, in Ottawa, Canada.May - This was a big month at RENEW! We successfully exited two investments to a regional private equity fund and a family office. RENEW and the IAN provided two rounds of angel financing to support the launch of an Ethiopian production company that exports to international markets. We also held our fourth International Gathering weekend in Washington D.C., and we released our <a href="https://www.renewcapital.com/resources/blogs/The%20Fourth%20Annual%20Impact%20Report">Fourth Annual Impact Report</a>.June - We attended the 5th Annual Private Equity in East Africa Conference (hosted by EAVCA) and participated on the "Investing in Women is a Good Idea" panel discussion.July - We made our first investment in Uganda from the Women-Owned Business Investment Fund. The fund was set up to invest in female entrepreneurs in Ethiopia and Uganda, and the first company to receive an investment was Kijani Baby (<a href="https://www.kijanionline.com/">Kijani</a>).August - We closed our second investment from the Women-Owned Business Investment Fund. This investment was made into a company that supports tourism in Ethiopia, which partners with Travel Ethiopia PLC (Travel Ethiopia).September - We visited with our IAN Chapter in Virginia and spent some quality time with some IAN members and investors. The partners also visited London and the Netherlands.October - RENEW had the pleasure of hosting a panel discussion in partnership with the Aspen Network for Development Entrepreneurs (<a href="https://www.aspeninstitute.org/">ANDE</a>), <a href="http://www.trust.org/trustlaw/">TrustLaw</a> (Thomson Reuters Foundation) and <a href="https://www.international.gc.ca/gac-amc/index.aspx?lang=eng">Global Affairs Canada</a> on the changes that are coming to the legal and regulatory framework for investing in Ethiopia. We also launched our fourth cohort of The Exec’s Program and CFO100, and we had several members of the Impact Angel Network visit us in Ethiopia.November - We attended the <a href="http://www.ipsnews.net/2019/11/global-gender-summit-2019-african-leaders-take-responsibility-urgently-close-gender-gap/">Global Gender Summit</a> in Kigali along with 20+ female entrepreneur delegates from Ethiopia who had won the <a href="https://invest2impact.africa/">Invest2Impact</a> Challenge. What an inspirational time and an encouragement to double-down on our strategy to build gender-balanced, gender smart management teams!December - We announced an important strategic shift in our investment strategy to the Impact Angel Network. Look for more background on this in 2020, but here are the broad strokes of it. Going forward, we intend to bring capital, training and skilled management into companies the IAN and RENEW take controlling positions in. With this strategy, we will be able to provide opportunities for existing team members to learn from veteran managers that have successfully led similar companies. Owners of portfolio companies will be freed to focus on their core competencies. A critical piece of this strategy is that RENEW will manage the back-office services for portfolio companies in the areas of finance, accounting, marketing, HR, sales, IT and potentially others to achieve economies of scale. We will also continue to provide training to company managers and will work with them to implement the lessons they learned within the companies we invest in.Throughout the year, we enjoyed connecting with members of the Impact Angel Network in Ethiopia, Uganda and around the world. As we start this new year and decade, we are grateful to the <a href="../../new-strategy/partners.html">Government of Canada</a> who makes our work in Ethiopia possible, members of the Impact Angel Network who believe in the potential of businesses to be the engines of prosperity, our team who works tirelessly around the world and the inspirational entrepreneurs leading our <a href="https://www.renewcapital.com/portfolio">companies</a>.The year and decade ahead look bright. This year will be about implementing the strategy shift we announced in December and providing high-quality professional services as we build businesses into market leaders, adding value to their employees and the markets in which they operate in. Here's to a great 2020.The Renew Team, Matthew Davis, Tom Scriven, Laura Davis, Justin Reesor, Erin O’Connor, Emily Ziethen, Prasoon Raghuwanshi, Lulit Negash, Yoseph Getachew, Tsegamlak Solomon, Kirsten Newman, Teddy Fantahun, Dagmawit Shiferaw, Filseta Asrat, Mary Adoi, Tamiru Belayneh

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2019 in Review and a Sneak Peek at 2020!

<a href="https://latest-api.renewcapital.com/uploads/Press_Release_Rwanda_Final_e91a7d55e4.pdf">Download the Full Press Release</a>&nbsp;<hr><h1 style="text-align:center;">RENEW Enters Rwanda Market</h1>Denver, CO and Kigali, Rwanda, April 29, 2021 -- RENEW, an impact investment firm, announces its expansion into its third African country, Rwanda. RENEW Investment Advisors Ltd. was officially registered with the Rwanda Development Board on April 19, 2021. RENEW also welcomes Lincoln Ford Linguyeneza to the team, as the firm’s Rwandan Legal Counsel.<figure class="image"><img src="/uploads/kigali_fotor_e488f89abb_9736ceced7.jpg"></figure>RENEW’s partners first traveled to Rwanda in 2006 and have been closely watching the county’s growth and improving investment and business climate, while building up the firm’s investment practice in Ethiopia and Uganda.“Now is a good time to establish a presence in Rwanda,” says Matthew Davis, CEO and partner at RENEW. “Investors are moving out of saturated markets in the region to find better valuation in secondary markets. We believe RENEW and our investors can find and build up strong companies led by passionate and visionary Rwandans that can attract larger investments. While Rwanda is small, other countries around the world have proven that when capital is respected and cared for, size doesn’t matter. Rwanda has consistently made it easier for investors to do business and that is something very attractive to RENEW and our investors.”Rwanda has experienced strong growth with a GDP of $10.53 billion and a GDP growth of 9.45% (2019 est.). Several factors make it an attractive destination for RENEW and the Impact Angel Network (IAN), including a growing population (currently estimated at 12.3 million), a rising middle class with a per capita GNI of $2,250 and little to no restrictions on foreign investors. Rwanda is also ranked by the World Bank as the second best country in Africa to do business in and 38th in the world.&nbsp;RENEW first entered East Africa in 2012, when it opened an office in Ethiopia, becoming the second private equity firm in the country. Since then, with the IAN, RENEW has become one of the most active SME investors in East Africa. RENEW and the IAN work in partnership with the development community and impact investors to build vibrant investment and entrepreneurial ecosystems in the countries where RENEW operates. RENEW focuses on SMEs, which globally are the main providers of jobs, but in Africa are trapped in the “missing middle” - an area in the capital market between microenterprises and larger, bankable deals where little capital exists. RENEW is focused on job creation and women’s economic empowerment by building gender-smart management teams in the SMEs it backs.“We believe SMEs can be the engines of job creation and women’s empowerment, and deliver strong returns for investors,” says Laura Davis, RENEW partner and co-founder of the IAN. “We see a lot of opportunity and plenty of deal flow in Rwanda.”###About the Impact Angel Network and RENEWRENEW’s Impact Angel Network (IAN) is one of the most active private equity investors in Ethiopia. Its members seek to achieve both significant positive social impact and financial returns through investments in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Africa, a proven engine of economic growth and job creation which often lack capital and management capacity due to their size. RENEW and IAN members believe that targeting employment through SMEs is, dollar-for-dollar, the most effective and sustainable way to reduce poverty. RENEW, with its largest office in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, manages the IAN’s investment operations and provides investment advisory and consulting services in support of its investments. RENEW’s work in Ethiopia was piloted with USAID and is currently undertaken with financial support from the Government of Canada provided through Global Affairs Canada. The project, Accelerating Business Growth, aims to promote sustainable job creation for low-skilled workers, including women and young adults, through a dynamic and growing small and medium business sector in Ethiopia.###To find out more, please visit <a href="https://renewcapital.com/">www.renewcapital.com</a>.

RENEW Announces its Expansion into Third African Country, Rwanda

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RENEW Enters Rwanda Market

<h1 style="text-align:center;">From Rwanda with Love</h1>While I was completing my secondary and university education in Uganda, I came to appreciate the importance of teamwork, structure and organization. I played rugby for my varsity team and a local rugby club where these fundamentals were important in order to win games. They remain ingrained in my mind even as I returned to Rwanda and continue to shape who I am today.I realized I should pay attention when not one, but two of my cousins sent me the link to the job listing for Rwanda legal counsel at RENEW. I immediately embarked on the application process. We all had an intuition that I was well suited for this impact investment position having just completed a startup incubation and acceleration program a year before. I craved structure and organization which I had a hunch RENEW would offer.<figure class="image image-style-align-center image_resized" style="width:100%;"><img src="/uploads/rwanda2_fotor_0_8befebb212_336ea1f54f.jpg"></figure>Despite being continuously advised about the proper interview etiquette, I used every chance to go off script and let the RENEW team know how passionate I was about the investment space. My training at 250Startups was short, and I knew I had more to learn and more to give to the investment space in Rwanda. Sure enough, my Christmas miracle occurred. At the start of the year I was hired as legal counsel for RENEW in Rwanda. Perfect timing for me to caption every social media post of mine, “NEW YEAR, NEW ME!” Someone even said that now I can say I’ve been ‘RENEW-ed’ (I’ve trademarked this already, sorry Matt).At the beginning of February, I had the chance to travel to Addis Ababa. I’m a bit of a cultural history buff so the onboarding trip was very welcome. The trip was meticulously planned by the team, and I had an absolute blast the whole time I was there. On the first day, I was welcomed by Paul who shared a couple of stories and jokes about flights and layovers. We then had a coffee meeting with the whole team where we got to know everyone. Turns out part of the team has the skills to moonlight as a band and the other as a rugby team. Talk about a diverse team. &nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="/uploads/screen_shot_2021_05_05_at_1_15_06_pm_579e9281ea_d7fd4634ff.jpg"></figure>I also got the chance to get fully immersed in the Ethiopian culture; I learned a few phrases in Amharic, visited Emperor Haile Selassie’s Palace Museum, won a treasure hunt, almost got recruited to a dance troupe at Yod Abyssinia and ate loads of injera from the source. It was such a fast paced, yet fun filled week, from the daily hotel pick ups and rides to work with Eyerus, Birru, Pranay and Philemon through the busy streets of Addis Ababa, to the early morning dose of amazing coffee and donuts. RENEW really is one big family, as some of the team members I had spoken to had alluded to and it was very evident during our onboarding week. I come from a very big family so it was really refreshing to see similar ideals being practiced by the RENEW team. They made sure my every need was taken care of and took a genuine interest in getting to know me.RENEW is true to its values and ideals of being loyal and welcoming the challenge of being trailblazers. That is what made me want to join the team and that is what motivates me each day.Rwanda has so much untapped potential and I’m looking forward to identifying and investing in exceptional individuals and businesses as part of the RENEW team. Just like you believed in me to represent RENEW in Rwanda, please believe in my fellow country people who have harnessed the culture of teamwork, community and Agaciro (dignity/pride). A recipe for success in the Rwanda investment ecosystem.

Lincoln Ford Linguyeneza’s Journey to RENEW

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From Rwanda with Love

<h1 style="text-align:center;">2020 in Review</h1>As we start a new year, it’s one of our traditions at RENEW to look back and remember the high points of the last 12 months. Here are some of the highlights of 2020:<ul><li>January - We hit the ground running in January with a trip to the UK to meet with investors while our East Africa team prepared companies to meet Impact Angel Network (IAN) members during the February Econ-Tourism trip to Ethiopia and Uganda.</li><li>February - Members of the IAN traveled to Ethiopia and Uganda on RENEW’s <a href="https://www.renewcapital.com/resources/blogs/Econ-Tourism%20Trip%202020">Econ-Tourism Trip</a> where they met with 16 entrepreneurs.</li><li>March - We celebrated International Women’s Day with a look at RENEW’s <a href="https://www.renewcapital.com/resources/blogs/RENEW%E2%80%99s%20Gender%20Equality%20Report%20Card">Gender Equality Report Card</a> and a blog authored by four women who work at RENEW.</li><li>April - When the first case of COVID-19 showed up in Ethiopia at the end of March, we began to work with our portfolio companies to develop contingency plans in the event of a prolonged economic slowdown. We shifted from looking at deals during our monthly <a href="https://www.renewcapital.com/apply">Members’ Call</a> to keeping investors abreast of the emerging situation across East Africa.</li><li>May - In response to a growing need to help companies beyond our pipeline and portfolio to make it through COVID-19, we launched a Telegram channel, <a href="https://t.me/OrangeBusinessNetwork">Orange Business Network</a>, and began to produce and share critical resources like training videos, tools and information for the East Africa business community. We also took our <a href="https://latest-api.renewcapital.com/uploads/RENEW_LLC_Investment_Seminar_Series_cbf868ea76.pdf">investment workshops</a> online to help curb the spread of COVID-19 and to expand our reach to more businesses in need of support. At the end of the month, members of the <a href="https://www.renewcapital.com/what-we-do/investing">Impact Angel Network</a> funded a third investment in Roadrunner Technology Solutions LLC (Roadrunner), a partner of <a href="https://deliveraddis.com/">Deliver Addis</a>, which continues to play a critical role in slowing the spread of the virus, and has become one of the largest e-commerce companies in Ethiopia.</li><li>June - We published our <a href="https://www.renewcapital.com/resources/blogs/Celebrating%20our%20Impact">2019-2020 Impact Report</a>! This year's report was a photographic journey through a year of investing with RENEW in East Africa. Thousands of people around the world enjoyed seeing pictures of impact and investing in East Africa.</li></ul><figure class="image image_resized" style="width:100%;"><img src="/uploads/ezgif_com_gif_maker_6f6b429047.gif"></figure><ul><li>July - Political unrest sparked by the assassination of a political activist put the country on stand-still as the government turned off the internet and left millions in the dark and disconnected from the rest of the world. Despite this, companies like Deliver Addis pivoted and many companies found ways to continue to do business and weather the political unrest.</li><li>August - the Internet was restored and our team began to line up some excellent investment opportunities that would consume our work for the second half of the year as RENEW and the IAN began a new investment strategy that focused on building stronger middle management teams across our portfolio companies.</li><li>September - After five months of running contingency planning webinars for entrepreneurs, we analyzed poll data from these workshops, taking a deeper look into the effects COVID-19 has had on Ethiopian SMEs. We learned valuable insights into how female and male managers and owners responded differently to crises like COVID-19. These underscored the importance of building gender-balanced executive teams in companies - which is part of RENEW and the IAN’s new investment strategy.</li><li>October - We <a href="https://www.renewcapital.com/about/teams">grew our team</a> by bringing on Paul Reynolds as head of asset management, and Kirsten Newman was promoted to RENEW’s general counsel.</li><li>November - RENEW’s Matthew &amp; Laura Davis, and Dagmawit Shiferaw were featured on <a href="https://youtu.be/rb4aFE6Ukww">EBS’s Ethio-Business Show</a>, talking about RENEW’s investments in Ethiopia and the critical importance of the development community ecosystem that is supporting the private sector in Ethiopia. We also announced an investment into Roadrunner Technology Solutions LLC (Roadrunner), a partner of <a href="https://deliveraddis.com/">Deliver Addis</a>, despite the global pandemic and domestic challenges.</li><li>December - We closed the year by building a pipeline of companies for potential investments in 2021, and began expanding out of Ethiopia into the region; adding members to our Uganda team and building a new investment team in Rwanda.</li></ul>February 2021 will mark nine years RENEW and the Impact Angel Network have been in East Africa. The IAN is the most active SME investment group in Ethiopia and continues to expand and invest in new companies across East Africa. Despite the challenges of 2020, we believe we learned a lot, made it through with our heads held high and we’re better off because of the many lessons we learned.We are most grateful to our partners at Global Affairs Canada and USAID who make our work in Ethiopia, Uganda and Rwanda possible. Both have charged into the world of blended finance and are helping to develop new, more sustainable ways to create leverage and impact in Africa. We are also grateful for our fearless and dedicated investors who continue to believe in the potential of the continent and in entrepreneurship to drive positive change. We are grateful to our entrepreneurs, who have shown perseverance through an unbelievably challenging year in an already challenging environment. And lastly, but not least, our team at RENEW - you remain loyal to our clients and our companies working tirelessly to help plant the seeds for a vibrant economy in the decades and centuries to come.Happy New Year...now let’s get back to investing!The RENEW Team<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthew-davis-a948772/">Matthew Davis</a>, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulreynolds5/">Paul Reynolds</a>, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/laura-davis-25764430/">Laura Davis</a>, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-reesor-019a942a/">Justin Reesor</a>, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/eziethen/">Emily Ziethen</a>, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/tsegamlak-solomon-921175a2/">Tsegamlak Solomon</a>, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/kirsten-newman-10301aa7/">Kirsten Newman</a>, <a href="https://renewcapital.com/team/teddy-fantahun">Teddy Fantahun</a>, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/dagmawit-shiferaw-8665943b/">Dagmawit Shiferaw</a>, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/filseta-asrat-4b5615158/">Filseta Asrat</a>, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/mary-adoi-0317b0b8/">Mary Adoi</a>, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/tamirubelayneh/">Tamiru Belayneh</a>, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/ca-shail-bhandari-272484128/">Shail Bhandari</a>&nbsp;