Mastercard Foundation launches African fund of funds

The Mastercard Foundation Africa Growth Fund (MFAGF), a fund of funds that works through African investment vehicles to support early-stage, growth-oriented SMEs on the continent, launched today with a committed $200 million. The goal of the fund is to enable dignified and fulfilling work for young people, particularly young women. The fund of funds is catalytic, helping to crowd in capital for African entrepreneurs by strengthening and de-risking African investment vehicles that are committed to advancing gender equity in entrepreneurship.

In addition to providing capital for investment vehicles, the MFAGF will offer a business development facility for its portfolio companies. The fund of funds initiative will use gender-lens investing principles to help advance the Mastercard Foundation’s Young Africa Works strategy, which aims to enable 30 million young people in Africa, particularly young women, to access dignified and fulfilling work by 2030. So far, the fund of funds has recruited two investment vehicles supporting entrepreneurial growth, one in East Africa and one in West Africa.

“The MFAGF has built up a promising pipeline of 180 diverse investment vehicles, including early-stage, growth, debt and seed VC funds and other non-traditional funds,” says Samuel Akyianu, MFAGF chief of party/managing director. “Five have gone through our investment screening process, two female-led investment vehicles are past due diligence and received a favourable investment decision,” Akyianu added.

The fund-of-fund’s vision is implemented by a consortium of partners, including Investisseurs & Partenaires (I&P) and Entrepreneurial Solutions Partners (ESP), Genesis Analytics, the Criterion Institute, and Africa Communications Media Group.