Impact Stories

Elpis Africa is dedicated to improving the health, safety, and economic conditions for small-scale miners in sub-Saharan Africa. And Samuel Kimani, Elpis’s CEO, is committed to seeing it succeed, but he knows he cannot do it alone.

 In early 2021, Samuel connected to Faith Driven Entrepreneur through his mentor Rick and joined one of the very first Entrepreneur groups. Encouraged by the 8-week course, Samuel volunteered to facilitate a group in the next session, and later joined a pilot “Next Step” group.

 When a fellow participant in Next Step mentioned having a non-compensated board of advisors at his company, Samuel, who values accountability and mentorship, decided to implement that idea at Elpis.

 Samuel quickly reached out to Chuck, also a member of the group. He and Chuck connected seamlessly and found they had similar visions of God working in Africa through the business world.

 After inviting Chuck to be a part of his advisory board, Samuel sent him Elpis’s pitch deck. Chuck reviewed the deck as a potential mentor and advisor. Within two weeks, however, Chuck was on board as an investor and Elpis received seed funding, sufficient to fund the proof of concept.

 Samuel shares, “We miss opportunities when we don’t dive into the Lord… He has such great plans for us when we seek Him and His kingdom first. I had been fundraising for over a year and two weeks after I surrendered everything to the Lord, Chuck invested.” Truly when we submit, God acts, and acts decisively.