2020-03-01_Fast_Company

FOR FACILITATING THE RISE OF

EQUITABLE PRIVATE MARKETS

37

Launched in 2014 to help urban retailers source produce such as

bananas and tomatoes from small-scale Kenyan farmers, Twiga

spent 2019 expanding its mobile ordering platform to encompass

nonperishable goods and developing its delivery capabilities. It also

integrated a fintech product that offers vendors credit to build out

their businesses. “We want to be a one-stop shop for informal retail,”

says cofounder and CEO Peter Njonjo. Twiga, which saw revenues

grow by around 500% last year, serves about 5,000 outlets daily

in Kenya and works with more than 13,000 farmers. The company

raised over $30 million last year from backers, including Goldman

Sachs and the International Finance Corporation, which it will

use to expand throughout Kenya—and likely beyond—this year.

35

FOR UPGRADING KENYA’S

INFORMAL MARKET ECONOMY

MOST INNOVATIVE COMPANIES 2020

When WeWork CEO Adam Neumann was

forced to resign last year, he sold around

$1 billion worth of his stock on his way out

the door. Many of Neumann’s employees, in

contrast, have seen the value of their WeWork options

go up in smoke. In the murky world of private-market

ownership, startup employees sign up for hard work

and a shot at IPO glory but often wind up empty-handed.

Why can’t large private companies share the wealth and

behave more like public ones? Enter Carta. Founded in

2012 and today valued at $1.7 billion, it helps more than

13,000 private companies manage their cap tables—

records of the securities a company has issued, who

owns them, and how much they’re worth—providing

rank-and-file employees transparency and leverage in

a system historically prone to abuse. In early 2019, it

launched scenario-modeling tools to assist investors and

companies seeking to optimize exits. (Carta offers its own

employees liquidity events—a chance to cash out—every

12 to 18 months.) “The wave of the future,” says Carta

chief people officer Nolan Church, “is private.”

MARCH/APRIL 2020 PHOTOGRAPH BY WAYNE LAWRENCE FASTCOMPANY.COM 73

Last year’s Netflix

miniseries When

They See Us wasn’t

simply a dramatiza-

tion of the Central

Park Five trial. It was

a rallying cry to

transform the crimi-

nal justice system by

looking more closely

at the district attor-

neys who prosecute

people of color

for political gain.

Civil rights organi-

zation Color of

Change teamed up

with director Ava

DuVernay to steer

viewers to the non-

profit’s Winning

Justice project, which

encourages voters

to “reimagine what

a prosecutor could

look like,” says

Color of Change VP

and chief of cam-

paigns Arisha Hatch.

The initiative, which

includes an online

database with info

on more than 2,400

prosecutors across

the country, provides

voters with tools

and resources to

pressure DAs to elimi-

nate cash bail for

nonviolent offenses,

for example, and end

prosecution for petty

drug crimes—or elect

better prosecutors.

So far, Hatch says,

the nonprofit has

helped more than

a dozen reform-

minded DAs win

office: “We’re chang-

ing the landscape

of what is acceptable

behavior among

prosecutors.”

36

FOR TAKING

THE LAW INTO

ITS HANDS

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