Venture capital firm Launch Africa has invested in pan-African recruitment firm Homecoming Revolution’s new on-demand expertise platform Insights By Experts.

Launch Africa fund manager Janade du Plessis says that, over the past two decades, Homecoming Revolution has built deep relationships across Africa with leading corporates and sector specialists, and is now bringing it all together on the Insights By Experts platform.

Insights By Experts, launched at the Sankara Hotel, in Nairobi, is a platform that helps global investors and companies access independent talent on-demand, from a vetted community of experienced African experts across a range of African countries and sectors.  

Launch Africa states that the launch has been spurred by a soaring number of investors and companies who want to scale in Africa but are constrained by a lack of quick and relevant on-the-ground knowledge.

The platform offers an extensive repository of African experts curated by Homecoming Revolution, which has been in operation since 2003.

The senior and experienced African experts listed on Insights By Experts offers up-to-date, on-the-ground insights, advice and opinions. These experts can be engaged for a range of needs including one-on-one chats, contracts or projects, coaching and mentoring, introductions and board positions.

“[The] platform shares deep African expertise with the world. Our hope is that it will foster significant economic growth on the continent,” says Homecoming Revolution CEO Angel Jones.

Coca-Cola Beverages Africa in Kenya strategy director Leonard Kimutai Tonui says the platform will make it “easy to pick the brains of a vast number of different experts across Africa”.

The experts will be useful during value identification (deal origination) and value validation (due diligence), which includes customer perception, founder references, competitor snapshots, technical assessments, customer problems and needs, market perceptions and high-level risks.

The experts’ services are also useful during value acceleration (performance improvement), which includes governance, pricing validation, human resources consulting, go-to-market intelligence, and partnerships and distributors’ procurement.

A key process that entails significant input from experts is value integration, which includes exploration of new business lines, acquisition considerations, regulatory risks of regional growth, technical endorsements and board seats.

Launch Africa states that Insights By Experts will be needed during market value enhancement before exit, including independent business plan validation, long-term improvement plans and sale price enhancement.

“For the private equity and venture capital industry, we are continually in search of talent to work with for market insights as we grow our companies, or for senior team members for our portfolio companies. I think this platform is quite unique and could be of enormous help to our members”, says East Africa Private Equity & Venture Capital Association executive director Eva Warigia.

The platform can be accessed either through self-service or assistance from Launch Africa.

The self-service is a six-step process that starts with a search across many countries, industries and disciplines. The client then sends the expert a consultation request with key questions and meeting date suggestions.

Following this, the client receives the expert’s response and confirms the consultation date, which is then followed by a calendar invite with a video link from the expert. The client then chats with the expert and gains proprietary knowledge.

Should the customer require specific assistance, then Insights By Experts provides an easy way to brief the recruitment team directly.

These expert packages can be tailored according to budget, time, delivery and outputs, be it one-off chats or a deeper engagement.

There are hundreds of experts currently loaded onto the platform and thousands of other experts in Homecoming Revolution’s unique database.

“We looking forward to using the platform in our own business, for our portfolio companies and our corporate partners,” says Du Plessis.