OCA Impact Stories: ReelFruit

ReelFruit, a female-led dry fruit processor operating in West Africa and headquartered in Nigeria has experienced tremendous growth since its inception in 2012. Enabling and managing this growth over the years has required hard work from its founder Affiong Williams and her team to attract financing, improve operational processes and systems as well as build the staff’s technical capacity. Open Capital is proud to have supported ReelFruit to this end at various points in its journey.

We first helped ReelFruit in the early days of its capital raise journey to build a robust financial model, determine its capital needs and prepare investor materials. Subsequently, the company went on to raise $3 million in Series A funding to expand its operations. 

We later re-engaged with ReelFruit to support operational improvement and financial management efforts. We developed several tools and dashboards to provide the management team with better visibility of the company’s performance across key metrics, improve production efficiency and maximize profit. We also helped update the existing financial model assumptions based on the new business realities, including the COVID-19 impact on the business. 

Affiong Williams shared the following regarding Open Capital’s support: OCA’s support has come to us at pivotal times in our business, and always tailored to suit our specific company needs. The quality of work was also of a very high standard, and I felt true partnership from the OCA team to see us succeed. 

Supporting women-owned/led companies such as ReelFruit is critical to our mission to advance African economies. By 2023, the company was retailing retailing across more than 500 stores in Nigeria, the larger West Africa, and global export markets. Beyond its financial success, ReelFruit has also achieved tremendous social impact. Over the last decade, it has created over 250 direct and indirect jobs and empowered local communities by purchasing its raw materials from a network of over 150 smallholder farmers, training them on modern agricultural methodologies, and providing them with a sustainable source of livelihood. 

For more information on Open Capital, reach out to contact@opencapital.com.