Roots To Foods Podcast

About Roots To Foods Podcast

The RootsToFoods Capital Series. Family offices, foundations, and institutional investors across the United States, Europe, Africa, Eastern Europe, India, and Southeast Asia hold significant pools of private and philanthropic capital, yet much of it does not consistently reach the scalable impact opportunities it was designed to serve. The RootsToFoods Capital Series is not about aspiration. It is about mechanics, decision-making, and how capital intent becomes capital deployment. The conversations convene senior practitioners who are actively shaping how capital flows in practice, from blended finance structuring and philanthropic capital to family office transition, domestic capital architecture and entrepreneurship pipeline development. Together, the episodes form a practitioner-grade map of where capital is already moving, what enables it, and what holds it back. Built for family offices, philanthropic organizations, and institutional investors. The Capital Series is an OviBees Ventures initiative. Founding partner: AV Ventures and ACDI/VOCA. Media Partner: AllAfrica Global Media. Capital Insight Briefs. Each episode of the Capital Series generates a Capital Insight Brief, a practitioner-grade synthesis of the core insight, what is working, what is not, and what it takes to unlock capital deployment in practice. The Briefs are free, downloadable, and designed for practitioners, advisors, foundation programme officers, family office investment teams, and institutional capital professionals who want field-level insight without the full audio episode. Download the latest Capital Insight Briefs at: www.rootstofoods.com (http://www.rootstofoods.com). Join our community of practitioners by subscribing to the Linkedin Newsletter Capital Deployment: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/capital-deployment-7454225038356013056 Wave 2 - The Layers of Capital Deployment Episode 9  |  Redesigning the System: While It's Still Running - Alexia Latortue, Head of Secretariat, Future of Development Cooperation Coalition. Episode 8  |  Mobilizing Capital: The Right Instrument for the Right Corridor - Wasim Tahir, CFA, Senior Advisor, ODI Global. Episode 7  |  How Global Networks Are Rewiring Where Impact Capital Flows - Michael Meehan, Founder, Forum for Impact. Episode 6  |  Catalytic Capital: How Philanthropy Shapes Climate Investment - Randall Kempner, Executive Director, Climate Philanthropy Catalyst Coalition. Wave 1 - Where Capital Is Already Moving Episode 5  |  From Capital Platforms to Entrepreneurship Ecosystems-Jeff Hoffman, Chairman of the Board, Global Entrepreneurship Network,Co-founder Priceline. Episode 4  |  Mobilizing African Capital for Africa - Dr. Frannie Léautier, CEO, SouthBridge Investments. Episode 3  |  Philanthropic Capital in Transition - Jennifer Kenning, Co-founder, Align Impact. Episode 2  |  Blended Finance at Scale - Joan Larrea, CEO, Convergence Finance. Episode 1  |  Capital Deployment in Practice - Nathaniel Heller, EVP, Geneva Global. Wave 3 in development. Learn more at rootstofoods.com (http://rootstofoods.com/).

Publisher

RootsToFoods

Category

business

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

19 Oct 2023

Latest episode

3 Nov 2026

Latest episodes

26 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   3 Nov 2026

   Africa Isn’t Short of Money. It’s Short of Risk Capital | Kanini Mutooni (DRK) & Dr. Frank Aswani (AVPA)

   Africa is not short of money. It is short of risk capital. This is the first RootsToFoods Capital Series episode with two guests. Ovidiu Bujorean speaks with Kanini Mutooni, Africa Director and Senior Managing Director at the Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation, and Dr. Frank Aswani, CEO of the African Venture Philanthropy Alliance (AVPA). Kanini walks through one real investment: Keep IT Cool, a Kenyan solar cold-chain company. In about three years it went from a single hands-off investor to an Earthshot Prize, and onto the path to financial sustainability. Frank explains what it would take for ten more companies to make the same journey. That starts with investor readiness and includes catalytic capital collaboratives that reserve seats for African investors. In this episode: - What a first catalytic check underwrites when there is little track record to go on. - How a convertible note and DRK's hands-on support brought in three more catalytic investors within 18 months. - Why $4 trillion in domestic assets still leaves Africa short of risk capital, and how AVPA's network is working on the gap. - The one thing both guests would speed up: more catalytic investors who work closely with the companies they back. Read alongside it: - the EP10 Capital Insight Brief and, from Thursday, November 5, 2026 Capital In Motion · Edition 01, insights from an early-stage company (Keep IT Cool). Guests: Kanini Mutooni · Africa Director and Senior Managing Director, Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation Dr. Frank Aswani · CEO, African Venture Philanthropy Alliance Host: Ovidiu Bujorean · CEO, OviBees Ventures Subscribe to the Capital Deployment newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/capital-deployment-7454225038356013056 All episodes and briefs: https://rootstofoods.com The RootsToFoods Capital Series is produced by OviBees Ventures, with AV Ventures, an ACDI/VOCA affiliate, as founding partner, and AllAfrica Global Media as media partner.

2. 

   27 Oct 2026

   Alexia Latortue · Refondre le système, sans l’arrêter

   Comment transformer la coopération au développement pendant qu’elle continue de fonctionner ? Dans ce neuvième épisode de la RootsToFoods Capital Series, Ovidiu Bujorean, PDG d’OviBees Ventures, reçoit Alexia Latortue, responsable du Secrétariat de la Future of Development Cooperation Coalition, coalition coorganisée par l’ACET et le Center for Global Development et soutenue par 20 pays. Alexia Latortue a été secrétaire adjointe au Trésor américain chargée du commerce international et du développement. Elle a aussi travaillé à la BERD, à la Millennium Challenge Corporation et au CGAP, à la Banque mondiale. Dans cet épisode : Pourquoi chaque pays, même le plus pauvre, a un bilan, avec des actifs et des passifs, et pourquoi la coopération devrait partir de là Ce qui fait vraiment bouger les grandes institutions, à partir de la réforme des banques multilatérales de développement Les quatre finalités que la Coalition propose pour la coopération au développement Pourquoi l’aide publique au développement n’est pas morte, et pourquoi il faut l’utiliser exceptionnellement bien Ce qui fonctionne déjà, du Rwanda au rôle nouveau des banques de développement En savoir plus sur la Coalition : https://devcoalition.org 📩 Abonnez-vous à la newsletter LinkedIn Capital Deployment pour recevoir chaque nouvel épisode, le Capital Insight et les analyses de la série :https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/capital-deployment-7454225038356013056 Prochain épisode, le 3 novembre : Kanini Mutooni (DRK Foundation) et le Dr Frank Aswani (African Venture Philanthropy Alliance). La RootsToFoods Capital Series est produite par OviBees Ventures, avec notre partenaire fondateur AV Ventures, filiale d’ACDI/VOCA, et notre partenaire média AllAfrica Global Media. Cet épisode est aussi disponible en anglais : « Redesigning the System: While It’s Still Running ».

3. 

   20 Oct 2026

   Alexia Latortue · Redesigning the System: While It’s Still Running

   Every country has assets and liabilities. What would development cooperation look like if it started there instead of with aid? Ovidiu Bujorean speaks with Alexia Latortue, Head of Secretariat of the Future of Development Cooperation Coalition and former Assistant Secretary for International Trade and Development at the U.S. Treasury. She has worked inside CGAP at the World Bank, the EBRD, the Millennium Challenge Corporation and the Treasury. She now runs the Coalition, co-hosted by ACET and the Center for Global Development, which is rethinking how development cooperation works. In this episode: Why institutions are full of inertia, and how individuals inside them can move it. The development balance sheet: starting from a country’s own assets, liabilities and vision rather than the aid flow. The four purposes the Coalition proposes for development cooperation. Why aid is small but precious, and which flows actually drive development. Where change is already visible, from Rwanda’s country-led approach to multilateral development banks acting as enablers. “Because ODA it’s small and because it’s so precious, and because used well it can be so catalytic, we had better use it exceptionally well.” Alexia Latortue, on official development assistance 🎧 Episode 9 of the RootsToFoods Capital Series, produced by OviBees Ventures, with AV Ventures (an ACDI/VOCA affiliate) as founding partner and AllAfrica Global Media as media partner. A French edition follows on October 27, 2026. 📰 Capital Insight brief: rootstofoods.com 📩 Subscribe to the Capital Deployment newsletter on LinkedIn to get every Capital Insight brief as it’s published: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/capital-deployment-7454225038356013056 Next: Episode 10, on November 3, 2026 with Kanini Mutooni, Senior Managing Director of the Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation and Dr. Frank Aswani, CEO of the African Venture Philanthropy Alliance.

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Spotify

5.0 / 5

2 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 14 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

17

Social presence

0

YouTube

0

Engagement

27

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Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.