Purple Elephant Ventures (PEV) is reshaping African tourism by creating and scaling startups that sit at the crossroads of travel, technology, and sustainability. Through a hands-on approach, PEV tackles the unique challenges within the tourism sector—developing solutions that optimize supply chains, empower businesses with eco-friendly tools, and transform content into impactful commerce. PEV’s startups are designed to drive economic growth, environmental resilience, and local empowerment, creating a future where tourism not only thrives but becomes a force for positive change.
With a lean and adaptive venture model, PEV ensures that every business it builds is equipped with strong unit economics and real-world impact. Beyond launching individual startups, the studio is cultivating a dynamic ecosystem—one where tourism serves communities, supports conservation efforts, and operates with sustainability at its core. By empowering local talent and fostering climate-conscious innovation, PEV is transforming African tourism into a platform for regeneration, growth, and global connection.
Purple Elephant Ventures’ Origin Story
The story of PEV begins with Ben Peterson, an entrepreneur and venture capitalist who saw both promise and problems in Africa’s tourism sector. Having spent several years investing in fintech, agriculture, and energy startups through AHL Venture Partners, Ben noticed something peculiar: despite tourism being one of the largest sectors on the continent, there were virtually no scalable tourism startups. This realization sparked a question: Why wasn’t tourism attracting innovation?
Ben found that the issue wasn’t a lack of opportunity—it was a lack of infrastructure for building tourism ventures at scale. Recognizing that traditional venture capital models weren’t designed to tackle these sector-specific challenges, Ben decided to take matters into his own hands. In 2020, Purple Elephant Ventures was born, designed to address these gaps and create tech-enabled, climate-conscious startups that can scale across Africa.
Despite launching just before the COVID-19 pandemic, PEV’s commitment to building long-term, sustainable solutions kept them moving forward. They saw the post-pandemic recovery as an even greater opportunity to reshape tourism for the better—and PEV is now doing just that.
A Portfolio with Purpose: PEV’s Portfolio Companies
PEV has built five companies so far, each solving distinct challenges in African tourism:
- Nomad Africa: Nomad Africa is East Africa’s premier travel content publisher & travel agency. Aimed at a new breed of African domestic traveler seeking inspiration on eco-friendly travel, they bring their followers diverse and exciting content and allow them to book these experiences directly with us. Nomad aims to be Africa’s leading travel content-to-commerce business, shaping the future of Kenya’s domestic tourism industry to be green by publishing eco-first content & driving bookings to aligned partners.
- Kijani Supplies: Kijani Supplies is a green wholesaler of hospitality supplies. Currently, most hotels and lodges struggle to source sustainable yet affordable supplies. Kijani is tackling this problem head on.
- Zafari: Zafari is a digital revenue growth platform for safari lodges. They believe that when a match between a safari lodge and a guest could be made, system inefficiencies shouldn’t get in the way. Unfortunately, many lodges have very old and inefficient digital booking systems, or even none at all. A more sophisticated and streamlined digital booking & marketing platform boosts occupancy and removes lodge managers from overseeing the tedium of email and phone booking requests.
- PowerTrip: High energy costs are a major source of headaches for African hotels and lodges. The damage they do to your P&L – not to mention the environment – is anxiety producing. At PowerTrip, they specialize in finding you the world’s most energy efficient appliances at prices equivalent to the old power-eaters you normally buy. Whether you’re on-grid or off-grid, they save your bottom line and the environment at the same time.
- Join Africa: Join Africa is a simple solution for national park authorities to regulate speeding, off-roading and animal safety within the confines of African wildlife conservations.
PEV’s approach to launching these ventures involves identifying co-founders with deep industry experience and giving them the tools to succeed. Once businesses reach early traction, PEV spins them off into independent entities, continuing to support them as a corporate co-founder throughout their growth journey.
Supporting Local Talent and Building for the Future
PEV believes that great companies are built by experienced entrepreneurs. The studio seeks co-founders with at least 10 years of professional experience—people who can leverage their skills to solve real problems without the stress of building a company from scratch.
PEV also prioritizes diversity—bringing in founders from various tribes, genders, and regions to lead its ventures. This diversity is essential not only for reflecting the rich cultural landscape of Africa but also for creating impactful businesses that serve broad and varied markets.
How to Get Involved with Purple Elephant Ventures
Whether you’re an investor, entrepreneur, or travel enthusiast, there are many ways to engage with PEV’s mission:
- Invest: Support PEV’s ventures as they grow by participating in funding rounds.
- Collaborate: If you’re an experienced entrepreneur interested in tourism or sustainability, PEV is always looking for new co-founders to lead its ventures.
- Travel: Explore the curated experiences offered through Nomad Africa or stay in eco-friendly lodges supplied by Kajani Supplies.
- Spread the Word: Help raise awareness about PEV’s work and the potential of tourism as a force for positive change in Africa.
