Biodiversity is a market
Not a crisis
We build companies from Africa’s ecosystems by combining science, ancestral knowledge, and local expertise to scale ventures in biotech, wellness, and tourism.
Africa’s biodiversity:
nature’s most powerful innovation engine
Mwaana is a venture studio creating companies rooted in Africa’s land, science, and culture.
We build companies designed to scale globally while protecting local ownership and ensuring that value flows back to the people and ecosystems it comes from.
We focus on sectors where Africa’s biodiversity is a unique advantage: biotech, nutrition, wellness and tourism.
What we focus on
Discovery & IP
Through Origin We identify, validate, and transform compounds and microbes from African ecosystems into licensed intellectual property that drives medicine, beauty, nutrition, and more. Our process ensures compliance with Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) agreements to create ethical, sovereign-aligned innovation.
Products from Source
Afrigenics allows us to create consumer brands crafted from ingredients discovered, validated, and produced in Africa. Our formula combines indigenous knowledge with scientific research for skincare, wellness, and nutrition products.
Tourism Meets Research
At Rift & Roots , we combine high-end tourism with hands-on scientific research, turning landscapes into living laboratories that restore ecosystems and create sustainable income for local communities.
Born in Africa, Operating Globally
We are building a future where Africa transcends its role as a source of raw materials, emerging as a global engine of innovation, sustainability, and economic empowerment. Mwaana is more than a company; it’s a catalyst for a new paradigm in venture development—one where profit and purpose are inextricably linked, creating enduring value for investors, communities, and our planet.
We're a venture studio creating companies rooted in Africa’s land, science, and culture. We build businesses designed to scale globally while protecting local ownership and ensuring value flows back to the people and ecosystems it comes from.
Our Four 'S' Model
Studio, Science, Source, and Scale: Our 4S model transforms Africa’s rich ecosystems into globally competitive companies that reinvest in the communities they originate from.
01
Studio | Venture Design Studio
Where bold ideas are born and shaped into investable opportunities
02
Source | Local Insight &
Environmental Data
Where community knowledge and natural systems guide what we build.
03
Science | Discovery &
Validation Lab
Where innovation is put to the test and backed by evidence
04
Scale | Built for Market
Leadership
Innovation into industry, grounded in shared value
05
Scale
We design ventures to compete internationally, while ensuring value flows back to their source.
A LETTER FROM THE TEAM
We’re not here to conserve
We’re here to build.
Africa holds one of the richest biodiversity on earth, yet its ecosystems are too often reduced to charity cases, carbon sinks, or distant tragedies. This mindset has failed both people and nature. At Mwaana, we see biodiversity not as a crisis, but as the world’s most overlooked engine of innovation and prosperity.
We believe ventures built around fair ownership, ethical benefit-sharing, and deep respect for ancestral knowledge can transform Africa’s natural wealth into breakthroughs the world needs.
When science, indigenous wisdom, and local stewardship work together, ecosystems thrive and generate sustainable economic opportunity.
We’re proving this by creating companies like Originem , where we turn unique African compounds into licensed intellectual property; Afrigenics , crafting science-backed wellness and nutrition brands produced at the source; and Rift and Roots , merging high-end tourism with hands-on scientific research to restore ecosystems and reward local communities.
We don’t fence off Africa’s ecosystems. We build companies designed to restore nature and reward the people who protect it.
Akim Daouda,
Founder & CEO
Akim DAOUDA is the founder of Mwaana and an experienced leader in the fields of climate finance, biodiversity policy, and African development. His career has been shaped by a single conviction: the Global South should not only steward nature, it should define the economic future built around it. Before launching Mwaana, Akim served as CEO of Gabon’s sovereign wealth fund, where he led efforts to align public finance with global climate goals. He played a leading role in landmark transactions linking biodiversity, carbon, and sovereign finance and helped design platforms that made natural capital investable on local terms. Mwaana was born from a desire to go further. To build the legal, scientific, and financial architecture needed to turn biodiversity into ventures that are locally anchored, globally credible, and equitable. Akim’s work now focuses on creating the conditions for discovery, equity, and innovation in one of the world’s most undervalued economies: nature. He is a Yale World Fellow, a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum, and a member of the Advisory Board of the Voluntary Carbon Markets Integrity Initiative. His writing and perspectives have been featured in Forbes, The Independent, Semafor, and the World Economic Forum Agenda
A LETTER FROM THE TEAM
The future of biodiversity
starts here
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Start the conversation
We build with people who see the future in ecosystems and want to act.
If you’re working at the intersection of science, biodiversity, and ownership, let’s talk.
Resources
Straight from
The Journal
The Future of Biodiversity starts here
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