Tanza (n): from the Swahili word anza, meaning ‘to start’, and ‘Tanza’ signalling our geographic origins in Tanzania.
At Tanza Ventures we share a deep passion for building high performing teams that are both effective and impactful. Here’s what matters to us:
Locally founded. Powered by diversity.
As a business founded and registered in Tanzania, we operate in a market that fuels our shared passion. We’re a small team, but we have more than 40+ years’ cumulative work experience in the region, predominantly in agriculture and agroforestry. We have experience in the private, public and development sectors; from across the world. Our strength lies in drawing the best from our diverse experiences.
Thriving on systems. Fuelled by culture.
We’ve seen what a poor culture can do to results, even when all the right systems are in place. However, focusing solely on culture, without investing in the right systems, also won’t sufficiently prepare you for scale. We believe that for a business to grow successfully, it needs both: simple systems and a great team culture. This belief has guided the development of our product portfolio and toolkits.
Commercial focus. Climate conscious.
We’re determined to leave the next generation a better world than the one we inherited. We firmly believe that achieving this goal requires solutions that are both environmentally and financially sustainable. Compromise is not an option for us. While our expertise lies in agriculture, our passion extends to supporting commercially sustainable and impactful businesses, irrespective of the industry.
Interested in hearing more about how we can help?
Contact us to start the conversation about your business.
Our Team
Jenny Lindgren
Co-Founder and CEO
Jenny’s strengths lie in her ability to handle data, conduct analysis, simplify the complex, identify critical paths, refine strategies and strike a balance between flexibility and structures. She combines experience from working in large multinationals in Europe with her leadership of a social enterprise in Tanzania, where she successfully grew the operation from a revenue of $2 million to over $20 million.
Innocent Basso
Associate Director
Inno is a strategic, systematic and data oriented professional, who combines an appetite for innovation, with a relentless focus on execution excellence and team care. His experience draws both from large international consulting firms and very hands-on experience in trialling, scaling and managing 40+ agro-dealer shops across multiple regions in Tanzania.
Erika Kafwimi
Associate Director
With a proven track record of leading large teams (400+ people), Erika has helped achieve outstanding results across multiple parameters in complex environments ranging from smallholder farmers to HIV/AIDS interventions. Erika is adept at fostering a culture of trust and a focus on outcomes and has deep experience tackling complex issues related to culture as well as diversity, equity and inclusion.
Joseph Malata
Consultant
Joseph has a decade of experience working with field teams and smallholder farmers. He is adept at translating complex strategies into engaging narratives that resonate with field teams and farmers. Joseph is excellent at training to trigger behaviour change in the field. He masters the art of giving feedback in a way that it is well received and actioned upon.
Board Members
Colm O’Flynn
Board Chair
Colm’s passion lies in harnessing the potential of individuals and teams to achieve exceptional results. Starting his career at a US-based tech start-up and then transitioning to lead teams of up to 3,000 staff in East Africa, he has experience across all stages of the company growth cycle and from both sides of the investment table. He is currently a Director at a philanthropic fund that blends catalytic financing with systems building for scale.
Alice Musetti
Board Member
A lawyer by trade and a businesswoman by instinct, Alice brings a wealth of expertise in legal matters, compliance and government relations. She has an exceptional ability to harmonise business objectives with government incentives and crafting compelling narratives that joins the two. Alice works full-time at One Acre Fund, supporting country programs to build their Government Relations capabilities.