#43 GKC | My 2nd Exit, SnackZone 🍿

Reflections On My Exit From A Traditional Snacks Company Empowering Underserved Women In Indonesia

Author

Nelson Ng
March 14, 2025 • Est. Reading Time: 8 minutes

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Happy Friday! 👋

This week, I’m busy setting up an eco-friendly laundry business with my partner in Bali.

In 2025, I’m focusing on investing & building profitable impact businesses.

Nothing fancy, full execution with good intentions.

Wish me luck! I’ll share more as it goes :)

💭💭 GOOD Insights

Meet SnackZone, an Indonesian-based traditional snacks retailer empowering underserved local women with fair wages & skills development.

Six months ago, I met Pak Hendra, CEO of SnackZone, through Mariko from ANGO Ventures.

A 15-year-old, profitable SME in Indonesia, expanding into international markets in the last few years.

And, the company needed additional working capital to build their inventory for international markets.

I decided to support SnackZone with our impact-first debt financing.

A total US$20,000 investment for 6 months, by myself and Mariko-san.

Now, here’s their remarkable achievements in 2024!

  • US$1.6M revenue, growing double-digit YoY

  • Improved Net Profit Margin YoY

  • Empowered Underserved Female Workers with fair wages & trainings

Another successful case study of impact-first debt financing in Southeast Asia.

(check out my 1st exit on LingoTalk here!)

Why I Love Impact-First Debt Financing?

The perfect match of funding for profitable impact companies & aspiring impact investors.

For early-stage impact companies, they struggle with:

  • finding suitable funding options (doesn’t fit VC power law / too risky for banks / insufficient grants)

  • fighting against time (contracts don’t wait!)

  • don’t want to dilute more equity for working capital

For impact investors, they struggle with:

  • don’t see sufficient returns (failure rate too high, DPIs too low!)

  • don’t want to wait for 7-10 years to see returns (case for impact VCs)

This is nothing revolutionary, tbh.

Invoice & working capital financing exist for the longest time.

But, what’s difference in the impact world?

Reasonable interest rate.

Money-driven investors aim for the highest interest rate, while true impact investors aim for suitable interest rate.

At Good Karma Club, we do a fixed 13% interest rate per annum and donate 1% to pay it forward.

I charge a 2% management fee. So, all my investors get a nett 10% interest gain per annum.

And, they are perfectly fine with the 10%, paid monthly into their bank accounts.

10 Deals A Year

My philosophy is simple.

I want to unlock the cash flow problems of impact companies, empowering them to create bigger impacts!

My goal?

10 deals a year, with avg. ticket of US$ 100k per deal, donating US$10k every year.

More to come :)

~~

If you’re interested to learn more about impact-first debt financing, happy to have a chat (LinkedIn or email).

This tech company grew 32,481%...

No, it's not Nvidia... It's Mode Mobile, 2023’s fastest-growing software company according to Deloitte.

Just as Uber turned vehicles into income-generating assets, Mode is turning smartphones into an easy passive income source, already helping 45M+ users earn $325M+ through simple, everyday use.

They’ve just been granted their stock ticker by the Nasdaq, and you can still invest in their pre-IPO offering at just $0.26/share.

*Mode Mobile recently received their ticker reservation with Nasdaq ($MODE), indicating an intent to IPO in the next 24 months. An intent to IPO is no guarantee that an actual IPO will occur.
*The Deloitte rankings are based on submitted applications and public company database research, with winners selected based on their fiscal-year revenue growth percentage over a three-year period.
*Please read the offering circular and related risks at invest.modemobile.com.

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❤️ Great Content You’ll Like …

Impact Frameworks
Impact Investing 101 | IRIS+ | SROI | B Corp | UN SDGs | OPIM

👍 How I Can Help

Whenever you’re ready, here’s how I can be helpful:

GKC Invest
Join our invite-only, impact-first investor club focusing on private credit deals in SEA.

10 deals a year // 6 - 12 months loan // 10% interest payback // min. US$ 5k per deal

Fractional CFO
Support on monthly financial reporting, capital strategy and fundraising advisory.

SEA Impact Program
Curate impact-focused programs for corporates (i.e. accelerators, deal flows)

Let’s chat on LinkedIn / email!

Reply

or to participate.