In recent years, investment in private sector agriculture in East Africa has been very limited, despite the fact that East Africa's agriculture sector has many entrepreneurs with good ideas for building successful businesses.

A lack of access to finance and technical assistance has meant that many businesses have been unable to expand. This in turn has resulted in a failure by the private sector to adopt improved technologies, products and services to the agriculture sector, which acts as a key constraint on rural job creation, development and food security.

In response to the absence of an investment facility which focuses on the development of private initiative in the agriculture sector in East Africa, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Gatsby Charitable Foundation and Volksvermogen NV have established African Agricultural Capital (AAC), a venture capital investment fund specifically created to invest in small and medium-sized agriculture-related businesses in East Africa.

AAC is managed by PCP Uganda, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Pearl Capital Partners, a Mauritius based investment management business.