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. LeapFrog and Prudential Financial acquire interest in Alexander Forbes
Prudential Financial, in partnership with LeapFrog Investments, announced its intention to acquire a strategic minority interest in Alexander Forbes Group Holdings Limited, a provider of financial advice, retirement, investment, and holistic wealth management services in South Africa.
The transaction builds upon Prudential Financial’s partnership with LeapFrog Investments to access high-growth financial services markets in Africa and deliver essential financial tools to emerging consumers. Since 2016, Prudential Financial and LeapFrog Investments have invested in high-quality market leaders across the African continent, including Enterprise Group in Ghana and ICEA LION in Kenya.
2. Apollo Agriculture raises $40m, led by Softbank Vision Fund 2
Apollo Agriculture, the commercial farming platform that helps small-scale farmers maximise their profits, has raised a $40 million series B funding round led by Softbank Vision Fund 2. The round also includes participation from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Yara Growth Ventures, Endeavor Catalyst, CDC, and existing investors including Anthemis Exponential Ventures, Flourish Ventures, Leaps by Bayer, SBI, Breyer Capital, and TO Ventures Food.
African farmers have long struggled to access credit and high-quality farming tools, leaving average farm yields per acre at only 10-20% of those in North America. Apollo Agriculture directly addresses these challenges and empowers farmers to increase their profitability 2-3x with access to financing, high-quality farm inputs, insurance and optimised advice. Apollo Agriculture leverages machine learning, remote sensing, and mobile payments to accurately underwrite farm credit risk and has built an automatically managed network of more than 5,000 agents and nearly 1,000 retailers that enables last-mile delivery of farm inputs and services to small-scale farmers.
3. Injaro launches new fund
Injaro Investment Advisors Limited, a Ghanaian growth capital investor, announced the launch of the Injaro Ghana Venture Capital Fund (IGVCF), its inaugural Ghana cedi denominated fund. The GHS 150 million (about $20.4 million) fund launches with commitments from several private pension schemes including the Petra Advantage Pension Scheme and Petra Opportunity Pension Scheme; Ghana Education Service Occupational Pension Scheme; Axis Pension Trust, Enterprise Tier 2 Occupational Pension Scheme and other clients of Stanbic Investment Management Services.
The fund will make equity, quasi equity or debt investments in SMEs in the food and agribusiness, education, inclusive financial services, healthcare, manufacturing and industrial services sectors mainly in Ghana (80%), and Côte d’Ivoire (up to 20%).
4. Mozambique: Zebu Investment Partners backs food distributor
The Africa Food Security Fund, managed by Zebu Investment Partners, together with Norwegian Investment Fund for developing countries (Norfund), have successfully closed a buyout of the Terramar Group.
Terramar is an importer, retailer, wholesaler and distributor of frozen, chilled and ambient consumer goods in Mozambique’s food and beverage market. The company’s proficiency in sourcing and distribution, through its two international procurement centres and best-in-class cold storage infrastructure, enables Terramar to service about 60% of this market and deliver food security to both rural and urban customers.
5. EIB considering investment in infrastructure fund
The European Investment Bank (EIB) has proposed an investment of $75 million (€68 million) into the African Infrastructure Investment Fund 4, managed by African Infrastructure Investment Managers (AIIM).
The fund targets essential African infrastructure assets in the mobility and logistics, power and energy transition, and digital sectors.
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