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. Admaius Capital participates in MFS Africa’s $100m Series C extension
MFS Africa, Africa’s largest digital payments network, has secured an additional $100 million in equity and debt funding led by Admaius Capital Partners, taking the total amount raised in the series to $200 million. New investors, Vitruvian Partners and AXA IM Alts joined the extension, alongside existing investors, AfricInvest FIVE and CommerzVentures, which re-invested in the extension. Previous other investors include LUN Partners Group, Goodwell Investments, Allan Gray Ventures, Endeavor Catalyst and Endeavor Harvest, Equator Capital Partners, Ulme B.V., and Vlemeij B.V.
Providers of debt financing included Stanbic IBTC Bank and Symbiotic. Stanbic IBTC Bank will be partnering with MFS Africa to support the growth of the recently acquired BAXI network of merchants and agents in Nigeria.
2. Launch Africa Ventures Fund I closes at over $36m
Early-stage pan-African venture capital fund Launch Africa Ventures announced a $36.3 million close of its inaugural fund, Launch Africa Ventures Fund 1, with investments from 238 retail and institutional investors in 40 countries.
Following the successful closure, Fund 1 announced its 100th investment at the end of May 2022, with $24 million invested in 108 early-stage tech and tech-enabled companies across 20 African countries.
3. IFC invests in pharmaceutical company Avacare
To increase access to high quality, affordable healthcare products and services across Africa, IFC announced a partnership with Avacare Global to help the company expand its manufacturing and distribution of various pharmaceutical and healthcare consumable products, including generic drugs in Africa.
Under the partnership, announced on the sidelines of the Africa CEO Forum, IFC will provide Avacare with an $28.6 million equity investment to help the company expand its manufacturing base, both organically and through acquisitions, in East and Francophone Africa. The investment comes at a time when Africa must build and reinforce its production capabilities to address the increasing local demand for medicines and vaccines.
4. CrossBoundary raises $25m to finance solar powered mini-grids in Africa
Africa’s first project financing facility for mini-grids, CrossBoundary Energy Access (CBEA), announced $25 million in new funding commitments from ARCH Emerging Markets Partners Limited, Bank of America, and Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund. This investment will leverage an additional $25 million in senior debt to deploy $50 million of capital into CBEA’s near-term pipeline of solar powered mini-grids.
The mini-grids combine solar and batteries to provide 24/7 grid-quality power to households and businesses. This initiative will enable individual local residential and small business subscribers to access renewable electricity for the first time. These solar powered mini-grids will help bridge the gap by bringing clean electricity to rural areas of Africa that do not presently have access to electricity.
5. Buy-now, pay-later platform CredPal receives investment
The Cairo Angels Syndicate Fund (CASF), a micro venture capital fund that invests in early-stage start-ups in the Middle East and Africa, announced its investment in the fintech company CredPal.
Launched in 2018 by Fehintolu Olaogun and Olorunfemi Jegede, Y-Combinator and Google backed CredPal is a financial technology company that has developed an innovative solution that allows businesses and individuals to buy anything and pay for it in instalments across online and offline merchants by providing them with instant access to credit at the point of checkout.
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