South Africa: Alitheia IDF backs corporate travel company

The Alithea IDF Fund (AIF) has finalised its investment into corporate travel management company, Club Travel Corporate (CTC). The investment will enable CTC’s black- women-led management team to take over the company through a buy-out arrangement, and expand the company’s operations to other countries in Africa. In addition, the funding will allow for significant enhancements to be made to the company’s proprietary technology, NexCT.

AIF is co-founded and managed by Alitheia Capital (Lagos, Nigeria) and IDF Capital (Johannesburg, South Africa). The fund, which announced its final close in 2021 identifies, invests in, and grows SMEs led by gender-diverse teams in a number of African countries.

“There is increasing recognition of the need to level the playing field and ensure that women-led businesses receive the same investment opportunities as their male counterparts,” says Polo Leteka, partner at AIF. “And it is with this in mind that we have decided to invest in CTC, a company that is predominantly made up of black women, with 80% of the company’s employees being female.

“This is a well-established niche travel firm that is part of the Club Travel SA group, which is owned by Travelstart. The management team, together with AIF, has now decided to take a majority stake in the business via a management buy-out arrangement. We believe that this buy-out is very much in line with our investment strategy. In addition, we have great confidence in the management team which has impressive experience in the travel industry, as well as a developed network of excellent contacts.”