Tourism is the third largest sector in Africa and employs over 25 million people. It is a major source of hard currency, and is how the rest of the world experiences Africa. Yet innovation in the space has been extremely limited.
Stepping in here is the Nairobi-based Purple Elephant Ventures (PEV), a venture builder with the goal of leading Africa’s tourism industry towards a greener future. The company was founded by CEO Ben Peterson, previously senior partner at AHL Venture Partners; Jan Van der de Willebois, a former investment banker at Dyer & Blair; and serial entrepreneur Mikul Shah, founder of EatOut Africa.
“My background prior to joining AHL was entrepreneurial – I had founded and ran two successful organisations – one NGO and one startup,” Peterson told Disrupt Africa. “AHL was looking for some operational heft when we first connected. And I was drawn to the idea of adding value to this nascent, but growing, ecosystem of players that are reshaping the African continent for the better.”
At AHL, he says he pitched thousands of startup ideas, but noticed zero were in the tourism sector, even though it’s the third largest in Africa.
“So I looked into it. And I realised that the industry is in desperate need of innovation. So we decided to build PEV to launch startups that collectively will build the digital infrastructure necessary to modernise the industry” Peterson said.
The company launched in 2022 with a US$1 million pre-seed round from a group of well-known global investors, and followed that up with a US$4.5 million seed round last month. PEV doesn’t invest in startups, it launches them – five so far, including Nomad Africa, Kijani Supplies and Zafari Technologies.
As noted above, tourism is a major industry in Africa.
“But operating a tourism business can be difficult here – there is a serious lack of service providers,” Peterson said. “The result is tourism is more expensive than it needs to be, thus tourist numbers are lower than they should be, and margins are low – thus operators really struggle. In addition, the industry isn’t as climate-friendly as it needs to be to compete for global travellers.”
All of PEV’s startups are based in Kenya, with rapid expansion plans. In the wake of its funding, the venture builder plans a busy year.
“We’re focused on growing revenue across our portfolio and on launching two new startups this year,” Peterson said.
