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. HAVAÍC announces $20m final close for fund
The HAVAÍC Universum Core African fund has reached a $20 million final close.
Under a joint venture with Universum Wealth and in partnership with leading local and international institutional investors such as Fireball Capital, the fund invests in South African, Kenyan, and Nigerian technology start-ups.
The fund is on track to complete up to 25 investments over the next three years. A third of the funds have already been deployed into early-stage African technology companies in the fintech, healthtech, and safetech industries, including Aura, Kuda, Crowdforce, Mobiz, Comparisure, Tanda, RecoMed, and HearX. New investments into pan-African communications platform Talk360 and leading Nigerian e-commerce player ShopEx are due for completion later this month.
2. South Africa: EXEO Capital acquires stake in Chemical Process Technologies
The local pharmaceutical industry has the ability to make a significant contribution to South Africa’s gross domestic product as well as Africa’s broader socio-economic landscape. There are, however, very few examples of successful home-grown pharmaceutical companies that address this opportunity and the national and pan-African imperative to establish an African-based pharmaceutical synthesis sector. This conviction has underpinned the decision by pan-African alternative investment firm EXEO Capital to acquire a majority stake in cutting-edge, chemical synthesis company, Chemical Process Technologies (CPT).
CPT is currently the only manufacturer of animal active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) on the African continent. As is the case with human APIs, South Africa, in particular, is heavily reliant on imported animal APIs manufactured in countries like China and India. With CPT having made significant headway into the development of the larger pharma sector for both humans and animals, it is one of the few companies that is opening doors for South Africa as a manufacturer and exporter of APIs.
3. SDG Frontier Fund reaches final close
The SDG Frontier Fund, set up at the initiative of BIO, the Belgian Investment Company for Developing Countries, has reached its final closing for a total fund size of €36 million, thanks to the participation of four additional Belgian private investors, including Ghent University and Ethias. The fund aims to support sustainable economic growth in African and Asian frontier markets and to offer an attractive financial return.
The SDG Frontier Fund is a self-managed co-investment vehicle that invests jointly with BIO in private equity funds operating in Africa and Asia. The fund is a BIO initiative and also draws on BIO’s extensive expertise of 20 years. The SDG Frontier Fund aims to invest in 10 to 12 funds, which in turn will invest in a dozen local small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). In this way, more than a hundred SMEs will receive support from the fund. This investment fund is the first of its kind in Belgium and offers a unique counter-cyclical opportunity to diversify an investor’s portfolio.
4. Futuregrowth invests in Ozow, alongside Tencent, others
The growth in e-commerce has boomed in recent years, with the pandemic spurring even more demand for online shopping. One company that has been successfully riding this wave is Ozow, an online – soon-to-be omni-channel – payment gateway that enables consumers to make instant electronic fund transfers (EFTs) at check-out online.
Futuregrowth Asset Management, via the Futuregrowth Development Equity Fund, took the opportunity to get in on the action when it participated in Ozow’s series B funding round alongside Tencent, Endeavour Catalyst – whose investment committee is chaired by the co-founder of LinkedIn – and Endeavour Harvest. The $48 million raised from the series B funding round provides Ozow with the capital to continue building its consumer-facing brand, launch new products and expand into new regions.
5. Zambia: Renewable energy company receives $15.5m investment
InfraCo Africa, the Danish Investment Fund for Developing Countries (IFU) and the EU-funded Electrification Financing Initiative (EDFI ElectriFi), have together committed $15.5 million to enable Africa GreenCo to scale its innovative offering as Zambia’s first renewable energy buyer and services provider.
GreenCo’s Lusaka-based company, GreenCo Power Services was established in 2020 with support from IFU and InfraCo Africa (through its sister company, PIDG Technical Assistance). GreenCo’s model involves purchasing power from renewable independent power producers (IPPs) and selling that electricity to utilities, private sector offtakers (i.e. commercial and industrial users) and competitive markets in the Southern African Power Pool (SAPP). The monies raised by the second fundraising will provide GreenCo with working capital and the liquidity buffer necessary to support a portfolio of up to 110MW of renewable energy.
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