Roco Pérez Ochoa is a reclusive tycoon who runs businesses in Kenya that have a significant social impact.
She received her PhD in 1999 after studying specific physics in Geneva, Switzerland, at one of the world’s most prestigious research organizations.
She got a job at a hedge firm after graduation and relocated to the City of London.
Ochoa had an outwardly fantastic life in the financial district, from her education, work, and even family.
Motherhood, on the other hand, changed everything, drastically changing her existence.
In 2004, Ochoa gave birth to a daughter, and in 2007, he gave birth to a son.
Motherhood’s journey pushed her to start questioning her priorities in life and what if her career would be meaningful to her family.
“Making rich people richer does not really matter,” she stated while announcing her next move in life.
Ochoa enrolled for another course for a master’s in climate change which then informed her decision to invest in Kenya.
In 2015, she launched Bidhaa Sasa. According to Forbes Lifestyle, she invested Ksh231 million (USD 2 million) of her own money into the new venture.
Bidhaa Sasa is technically a retailer. It sells products to rural women, many of them small-holder farmers, that include cookstoves, a tool for drying crops, and solar lamps.
She founded the Bidhaa Sasa with the aim of supporting green start ups in emerging markets. It also mentors entrepreneurs by offering advice on effective ways of raising capital, business planning and modelling, and strategy.
“Bidhaa Sasa defies those easy definitions, as both a throwback to a past when capitalism was pretty clearly a force for good – at the same time it’s on the front lines of the future by virtue of its deep connections to women, who are a rising force in the global economy,” Ochoa remarked.
The Center is also raising money for its own fund to invest in social entrepreneurs, which often struggle and hardly survive after the small startup phase.
The company has also extended its roots to Uganda having over 140 employees in the two East African countries.
