Swiss LP commits $10m to West Africa fund
The Swiss Investment Fund for Emerging Markets (SIFEM) has made an investment in the Uhuru Growth Fund I. SIFEM’s $10 million will target businesses with an operating history, established revenues, strong management teams and a competitive position in their markets.
The overall objective is to grow these businesses into leading companies within their sectors, and where a regional strategy is involved, into regional champions.
Uhuru Growth Fund I is the first fund of Uhuru Investment Partners, an emerging manager in West Africa founded by a team with local origins who have spent most of their professional careers in private equity. The team has offices in Lagos and Abidjan.
Ghana, Nigeria and Ivory Coast, the fund’s focus countries, have very low levels of private equity activity, and there is a real dearth of growth capital in these markets.
In addition to SIFEM, Uhuru Growth Fund I is backed by other development finance institutions as well as commercial investors such as Kuramo Capital Management and AfricaGrow, a commercial vehicle blending private funding from Allianz and public funding from KfW of Germany. The development finance investors are the European Investment Bank (EIB), DEG (Germany), CDC (United Kingdom), and Finnfund (Finland). The fund has reached $113 million at its first close.
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