SUNNY SATVA FOUNDER OF VEGAN AFRICA FUND SUNNY Satva is the founder of Vegan Africa Fund, an organisation set up to help African vegan founders access capital and a global network. Sunny believes the most important and exciting sector to invest in now is the vegan product sector and regenerative agriculture in Africa.
Sunny – hello and welcome. Where are you currently? Spiritually, I’m at a place of peace and alignment, doing what I felt called to do. Mentally, I believe that the world is on its way to embracing compassion and veganism. Physically, while writing this, I’m at a blockchain conference and have been in the United States for the past few months to raise awareness of the vegan community’s needs across Africa. And what are you up to? Busy? I feel like I’m always in motion, and love what I do. I’m working to bridge the intersection of vegans, crypto, and Africa to create a more equitable and sustainable future. I’m currently fundraising to invest in high-growth-potential vegan businesses which are African-owned. I’m excited 48
FORÇA VEGAN
to deploy capital into the future leading vegan brands in Africa to scale their operations. We’re fundraising and distributing equity through our eco-friendly crypto-token “VAF.” Been vegan long? I have been vegan for six years! It’s been quite the journey, and like most of us, the only regret I have is that I didn’t go vegan sooner. What was your motivation for going vegan? and staying vegan? Wow. It gets emotional for me sometimes, because I went vegan in late 2015 when a partner of mine was diagnosed with cancer. After getting a second and third opinion, we learned about the power of plants in healing disease, so went vegan together. This is when I started eating vegan for health.
I fully embraced veganism for the animal rights aspect in 2017. I was working in a research lab where we performed experiments on kangaroo rats. These beautiful animals were all killed through the experimentation process, and this was eye-opening for me. I’d never been so close to animal testing - and when I left that job, I embraced a vegan lifestyle for ethical and compassionate reasons. The Vegan Africa Fund – tell us more. I spent most of the past two years in Africa, where I made my first angel investments into Vegan Basket, Kenya’s first vegan protein producer located in Kilifi on the Kenya coast. After traveling and networking across Africa, I built a directory of hundreds of vegan businesses in over 25 countries, in target sectors including alternative protein,
