June 2026 Edition

From Nigeria to Pakistan: The case for backing nutrition entrepreneurs is stronger than you think.

Message from the Executive Director

Dear partners and friends,

The case for investing in nutrition MSMEs

MSMEs are the primary source of food for the communities most at risk of malnutrition. When they struggle, the entire food system around them weakens, exacerbating malnutrition and hitting the poorest hardest. They are not peripheral players, but they do tend to be forgotten. This is the gap GAIN wants to close.

Think about it. Worldwide, between 638 and 720 million people faced hunger while 2.60 billion were unable to afford a healthy diet in 2024 (SOFI, 2025). The businesses producing, processing, distributing, and selling nutritious food are overwhelmingly micro-enterprises, making up around 85% of all private sector agri-food value chains. The majority are informally managed and constrained by poor access to credit, markets and networks to grow their businesses. 220,000 agri-SMEs in sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia (excluding India) have a total financing need of USD 160 billion, but only 34% is currently being met through formal finance channels, leaving an annual formal financing gap of USD 106 billion (ISF Advisors, 2022).

Independent impact evaluations show that 50% of SMEs supported financially increased their employee headcount by two or more individuals within just three months. Evidence from the sector shows benefit-cost ratios that are nearly always positive, usually $5 for every dollar invested.

In 2025, GAIN has supported well over 15,000 MSMEs, reaching an estimated 1 million people with 142 million servings of nutritious food. In this newsletter, we showcase two stories of entrepreneurial changemakers improving access to nutritious foods in Nigeria and Pakistan.

In this newsletter, we showcase two stories of entrepreneurial changemakers improving access to nutritious foods in Nigeria and Pakistan.

Warm regards,
Lawrence Haddad
Executive Director, GAIN

Nigeria

Quietly Feeding a Generation: Inside Baby Grubz’s Nutrition Mission

Seun Sangoleye was a computer engineer by training. But in 2013, the problem she faced had no technical solution. Her infant son was rejecting every commercial baby formula she tried. So, she started making her own nutritious and affordable infant foods from locally sourced Nigerian ingredients. Within three months, her son was growing strong, and she knew she had found a business worth building.

Seun Sangoleye, CEO & Mum in Chief, Baby Grubz

That kitchen experiment became Baby Grubz — a company producing complementary foods for children aged six months to five years, specifically designed to address nutrition deficiencies common among Nigerian infants. Every product is made from 100% local ingredients. Every product is priced for families who need it most.

Baby Grubz grew steadily. Then COVID-19 arrived, and the company faced losing its production facility entirely. At the critical moment, GAIN and the SUN Business Network (SBN) stepped in through the ‘Keeping Food Markets Working Initiative’, enabling Baby Grubz to retain its facility, invest in modern food-processing equipment, and transition to solar-powered operations — building resilience that would carry Seun and her business through future shocks.

The SBN relationship began earlier, with Baby Grubz winning the SBN NutriPitch competition. This not only provided seed funding but also gave exposure, partnerships, and the connections that helped a kitchen idea become a company capable of surviving a pandemic.

Today, Baby Grubz has fed close to 350,000 babies — not just feeding them, as Seun says, but transforming their nutritional status. Through an inclusive model, Seun works with 100,000 mothers, providing them income while they mentor on nutrition and breastfeeding. Now she advocates for stronger government policy supporting nutritious infant foods. She speaks as a business leader who has seen what the right support at the right moment can unlock.

Businesses like Baby Grubz change what communities eat, one child at a time.

Your support helps GAIN back entrepreneurs like Seun to feed the next generation.

Pakistan

From Waste to Nourishment: How One Company Saved Pakistan’s Mountain Harvest

Pakistan loses nearly one-third of its harvested fruits every year. In mountainous regions, fruits spoil during peak harvest seasons before they can reach the people who need them. The highest losses were reported in apricots (30%) and mulberries (90%). The loss is both economic and nutritional: farmers earn less, while consumers go without.

The Himalayan Foods Company, founded by university graduates Wazir Mohsin Abbas and Farmal Ali, addressed this problem by combining traditional orchard farming knowledge with modern food processing. They transformed surplus local fruits into nutrient-enriched, halal-certified, shelf-stable snack bars. Every ingredient — apricots, walnuts, almonds, and dry fruits — is sourced directly from local farmers and mountain communities. 30% of the company’s production is sold locally at affordable prices to low-income communities in remote mountainous areas. This model helps improve access to healthy foods in underserved communities while creating value-added farm income.

Through GAIN’s SUN Business Network in Pakistan, and in partnership with Arla Food Ingredients, The Himalayan Foods developed protein-enriched fruit bars containing 11% protein alongside vitamin and mineral fortification. In two years: apricot procurement from farmers grew 61% and the workforce doubled, with women and youth accounting for 50% of all new hires. The model also prevented 235 kg of CO₂-equivalent emissions by converting waste into value.

The Himalayan Foods now aims to scale from 500 to 5,000 bars per day by 2030, integrating into school meal programmes, workforce nutrition, and social protection systems across Pakistan.

The Himalayan Foods is proof that nutrition, sustainability, and commercial returns can advance together.

Your support helps GAIN back the businesses making that possible across Pakistan and beyond.

Businesses like Baby Grubz and The Himalayan Foods Company are not exceptions. They are the model. They are the entry point. Across Africa and South Asia, thousands of entrepreneurs are doing what Seun, Wazir, and Farmal are doing: building nutrition into the food system, one business at a time. But they remain invisible to most investors. They lack access to the capital, networks, and technical support that would let them scale.

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Behind every story in this edition is an investment opportunity. We welcome your perspectives and look forward to exploring opportunities for collaboration.

Please feel free to contact us at philanthropy@gainhealth.org to discuss a partnership with GAIN.