Tofino Capital is an investment firm that focuses on early stage investments in frontier markets, particularly those experiencing growth due to demographics and digital infrastructure developments.

Tofino Capital

Early stage investor in frontier market technology companies

Tofino Capital's Monthly deep dive looks at the state of "mining tech" and what it means for frontier markets. A few key points from the report is below, and a link to the full briefing is here: https://lnkd.in/eMxSP4v4

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1. Investment in "Mining tech" by Silicon Valley has increased 8x in 5 years. 

2. Critical and rare minerals and the search for them by a kaleidoscope of stakeholders — from nation-states, climate activists, wildcat miners, and now venture capitalists — have transformed society, geopolitics, and the race to fight climate change.  

3. China is the leading producer of 29 of the 50 minerals on the 2022 US Geological Survey critical minerals list. 

4. From the mid-1960s to the mid-1990s, the U.S. was the world’s major supplier of rare earths. Today, the U.S. imports nearly 100% of rare earths used in commercial products and exports some domestically mined rare earth minerals for economic processing overseas.

5. By 2050, to sustain the level of demand we are forecasting, the production of critical minerals must grow 30 times, from $320 billion in current production to $10 trillion.

6.  New technology is needed for frontier market mining communities. We believe that by focusing our capital into businesses at this intersection - community and company - we can help unlock even more capital sources (green capital and USG resources). We’ve already made one investment into technology designed for decentralized, remote asset management - Circadian.

Companies mentioned: Altana Armada goTenna EarthAI Redwood Materials KoBold Metals Built Robotics Crusoe Cape TerraHaptix ReElement Technologies SparkMeter Envirosuite

We’re so excited for what Mudiaga Mowoe is building with Matta!

Tofino Capital was recently featured in Timothy Motte's excellent frontier market-focused newsletter The Realistic Optimist.

Another great US Nigeria Council for Food Security, Trade, and 
Investment (USNC) dinner on the margins of the World Bank IMF Spring mtgs. 

Two Tofino Capital portfolio companies (SeamlessHR and Prembly) presented their businesses to Nigerian MinFin, US State Dept, USTR, Dept of Commerce and Defense Department stakeholders present.

Backed by McLarty Associates, the USNC, now in its 8th year, was established by Tofino’s Eliot Pence to catalyze capital around startups, strategics and sovereigns.

The Council is now run by Terence McCulley and Chaired by @JohnNegroponte and @JohnCoumantaros and @Flour Mills Nigeria.

Tofino Capital is happy to sponsor the inaugural The Canada-Africa Chamber of Business Forum May 22-23 in Washington, DC. The forum will explore how the US, Canada and Africa can collaborate on mining, trade, investment and technology development. 

Let us know if you'd like to join by following us and reaching out to Garreth Bloor

https://lnkd.in/eXK5wSRd

Tofino Capital's most recent monthly deep dive looks at "pre-commerce" - the kind of commerce that exists in most frontier markets where average revenue per user is low and the cost to produce the goods is high. 

Tofino’s core markets have e-commerce penetration rates that are relatively low (<10%), with existing economic activity still taking place in the informal sector–in cash and offline. The various business models that succeed, the inflection points for adoption/usage of platforms, the products, and payment rails that drive sector-specific metrics are very different in pre-commerce markets. 

To understand where pre-commerce is going, it's important to understand how it evolves. We think of it in 4 distinct phases, and our piece looks at them in detail.

Link to Tofino’s monthly deep dive: https://lnkd.in/ekfHnzaa

Tofino is in Madagascar this week. 

Below, a woman in Antananarivo takes a break from daily chores to get above the noise (and to get a better cell signal).

Pumped for our portfolio company Zone and the team!  Obi Emetarom  Emeka Emetarom Wale Onawunmi

Africa’s first regulated blockchain network for payments!

https://lnkd.in/egvPeJQE

Psyched to see our portco, MoneyHash, launch!
https://lnkd.in/dKf3eD4X

TOFI

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Tofino Capital