The 5 most popular stories on Africa Private Equity News this week
Here are summaries of the five most widely read stories this week on Africa Private Equity News.
1. IFC leads $110m investment in B2B e-commerce platform TradeDepot
TradeDepot, the B2B e-commerce and embedded finance platform in Africa, has raised $110 million in an equity and debt funding round to support the delivery of buy-now-pay-later services to 5 million SME retailers and drive further expansion of its merchant platform across the continent.
The series B equity round was led by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), with participation from Novastar, Sahel Capital, CDC Group, Endeavor Catalyst and existing investors, Partech and MSA Capital. The debt funding was led by Arcadia Funds.
2. XSML announces final close of African Rivers Fund III
XSML, the fund manager active in Central and East Africa, announced the final close of the African Rivers Fund III (ARF III) at $81 million, exceeding its target of $75 million.
ARF III is XSML’s third fund under management, after its maiden fund the Central Africa SME Fund (CASF) and its second fund, African Rivers Fund (ARF), bringing total assets under management to $154 million.
For this final close, FISEA, managed by Proparco (the French development institution) joined DALHAP (private impact investor) and Norfund (the Norwegian development fund) and first close investors BIO (Belgium Investment Company for Developing Countries), the Dutch Good Growth Fund (DGGF, managed by Triple Jump), FMO (the Dutch development bank), IFC (a member of the World Bank Group), Swedfund (Swedish development bank) and the SDG Frontier Fund (which includes nine private and institutional investors from Belgium).
3. Ethos to exit investment in packaging supplier
Ethos Fund VI has entered into a sale agreement in respect of South African paper and packaging supplier Neopak Holdings with the Corruseal Group.
The Corruseal Group, which is 100% black-owned, intends to acquire 100% of Neopak Holdings (with revenues of about R1.1 billion (about $69.9 million)). Neopak’s business focuses exclusively on the manufacturing of high-quality recycled containerboard and related paper products via its paper mill operations in Rosslyn and recycling operations in Amalgam.
4. SPEAR Capital increases investment in online fashion retailer
SPEAR Capital, an international private equity firm with a focus on southern Africa, has increased its investment stake in South African online fashion retailer MyRunway.
Formerly called RunwaySale, MyRunway has warehouses in Cape Town and Johannesburg and ships more than 600,000 fashion items a year across South Africa.
The investment builds on the R100 million ($6.3 million) stake SPEAR Capital took in the company in early 2020 and is a testament to MyRunway’s ongoing growth and innovation over one of the most challenging economic periods in global history.
5. Africa’s first running shoe company Enda secures $1m funding
Enda, Africa’s first high-performance brand of running shoes, announced its successful series A debt and equity funding round, securing $1.1 million in funds. The funding round included several Kenyan angel investors and was led by Talanton, a U.S. based impact investment fund focused on scale-up businesses in developing countries.
Enda surpassed its initial goal of raising $650,000 to expand its product lines and distribution. The brand has demonstrated a successful business model with a strong potential for continued growth and revenue.
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