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. Old Mutual Private Equity to acquire 100% stake in Long4Life
Old Mutual Private Equity (OMPE), a division of Old Mutual Alternative Investments, announced that 89.9% of Long4Life Limited’s shareholders, present and voting at the shareholders’ meeting held on 28 February 2022, approved the transaction for OMPE to acquire 100% of Long4Life and delist the company.
The deal is valued at R4.2 billion (about $277.9 million) and will be financed through a combination of debt and equity.
2. AfricInvest, others back Moove’s latest funding round
Moove, which provides revenue-based financing to mobility entrepreneurs across Africa, has raised $105 million in an oversubscribed series A2 round consisting of equity and debt. The round is led by existing investors, Speedinvest, Left Lane Capital and the latest.ventures, with participation from new investors including AfricInvest, MUFG Innovation Partners, Latitude and Kreos Capital.
Launched in 2020 by Ladi Delano and Jide Odunsi, Moove is democratising vehicle ownership across Africa by providing mobility entrepreneurs access to revenue-based financing in markets with low access to credit. Using its alternative credit scoring technology, Moove provides vehicle financing to its customers to purchase brand new vehicles using a percentage of their weekly revenue.
3. IFC invests in Antler East Africa fund
To support the growth of East Africa’s technology startups, the IFC announced an investment in the Antler East Africa fund. Antler is an early-stage venture capital fund, focused on developing the next generation of tech leaders.
IFC’s $1.5 million investment in Antler East Africa, along with $500,000 from the Women’s Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative, or We-Fi, will support the company’s new incubator programme that launches in March and includes a focus on supporting women entrepreneurs.
Antler will provide a support network including personalised coaching, workspace, and training to startup founders accepted into the programme. The programme will support teams who have an idea and want to turn it into a business, as well as early-stage startup teams looking to grow and raise capital. Through the incubator programme, Antler plans to make 35 new investments in early-stage startups over the next three years.
4. Tiger and Avenir lead Africa’s biggest-ever non-fintech VC financing round
Sokowatch, the African e-commerce company leveraging innovative technology to transform the informal retail supply chain, has announced the close of a $125 million series B equity round, the largest venture financing round ever raised for a non-fintech startup in Africa. Led by Tiger Global, the world’s largest venture capital firm, and Avenir Growth Capital, the round includes participation from a host of leading names including VNV Global, Binny Bansal (co-founder of Flipkart) and Sujeet Kumar (co-founder of Udaan), as well as existing investors Quona Capital, 4DX Ventures and JAM Fund.
Alongside the new funding, Sokowatch has also officially launched in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire and Dakar, Senegal, the company’s first locations in West Africa, as it continues to revolutionise access to consumer goods across Africa’s $600 billion informal retail sector. With its rapidly growing pan-African operations, the company has rebranded to Wasoko, which translates to “people of the market” in Swahili. The new brand reinforces the company’s shift from its origins as a backend distribution software platform in East Africa to a public brand providing free delivery of essential goods and working capital financing to informal retailers across opposite ends of the African continent.
5. Tanzanian cashew processor raises $1.3m funding
YYTZ, a Tanzanian cashew processor that works with smallholder farmers and women’s groups to build an inclusive value chain, recently announced that it closed its extended series seed funding totaling $1.3 million. CRI Foundation, Global Partnerships/Eleos Social Venture Fund, Segal Family Foundation and existing investors HRSV and FINCA Ventures participated in the round. In addition to the convertible notes raised in 2020 and 2021, YYTZ also raised a working capital facility from the Rabobank Foundation.
YYTZ was founded in 2016 by Fahad Awadh and his father after they saw a large opportunity to increase the local processing capacity for cashews (90% of which had historically been exported from Tanzania raw in the shell at low prices) to ensure that more value reaches the farming communities where cashews are grown.
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