British International Investment backs South African PE fund
Summit Africa announced the launch of its Summit Private Equity Fund II with a $20 million anchor investment by BII.
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Summit Africa, a South African fund manager, today announced the launch of its Summit Private Equity Fund II (SPEF II) with a $20 million anchor investment by British International Investment (BII), the UK’s development finance institution and impact investor.
SPEF II will invest in small-to-mid market companies in financial services and ICT sectors to drive financial and digital inclusion, job creation, transformation, and diversity across South Africa and the Southern African region. The fund will also target food security as an additional investment sector.
SPEF II intends to raise an additional ZAR400 million (about $21.7 million) to R500 million (about $27.2 million) from other local and international institutional investors, before commencing with deployment of capital. SPEF II has a target fund size of R2.5 billion (about $136 million).
Leslie Maasdorp, BII CEO said: “Working with impact-aligned fund managers like Summit is important to help achieve our goal to deliver development impacts at scale. With its proven track record for the first fund, we are delighted to anchor Summit’s second private equity fund to double down support to SMEs in key sectors that improve the livelihoods of people in South Africa and the Southern African region.”
The fund’s investment lead and partner, Nthabiseng Thema, commented: “The fund is grateful for the support and commitment received from BII. This anchor investment demonstrates the strength of Summit Africa’s investment platform, our team, our fully integrated ESG and impact strategy, and our ability to work actively with portfolio companies to meet their financial and social impact objectives. This is also a vote of confidence in South Africa and the Southern Africa region as an investment destination, noting the Presidential Investment drive to mobilise R2 trillion worth of investments in South Africa over the next five years.”
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