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. Poultry business raises $14m from AgDevCo, AHL, others
Flow Equity, a poultry business targeting underserved rural households, has raised a combined $14 million funding round with participation from AgDevCo, AHL Venture Partners, Acumen Resilient Agriculture Fund (ARAF) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The company mainly operates in Ethiopia via its investment in EthioChicken, and Rwanda and Uganda via its subsidiary Uzima Chicken.
The company’s primary product is high-yielding day-old chicks, which are sold in a package including feed and vaccines to its network of trained agents who grow the chicks for a month to produce healthy, vaccinated pullets and cockerels that are then sold to smallholder farmers. The world-renowned breeds produce three to four times more eggs in comparison to local chickens and reach over 2kg in three months in the village environment, representing at least a 3x gain in productivity for smallholder farmers. Its inclusive distribution model and proven breeds enable Flow Equity to meet the fast-growing demand for protein among the mass market at the bottom of the pyramid.
2. Injaro Ghana Venture Capital Fund reaches first close
Injaro Investment Advisors Limited, a Ghanaian growth capital investor, announced the successful first closing of the Injaro Ghana Venture Capital Fund (IGVCF), its inaugural Ghana cedi denominated fund with GHS 127 million (c. $12.3 million) in total commitments. IGVCF is targeting total capital commitments of up to GHS 200 million (c. $19.4 million) and remains open for additional commitments. IGVCF is unique in the sense that it is the first fund of its kind in Ghana with local pension funds as anchor investors. This fund demonstrates the increasing allocation of capital from pension asset managers into collective investment schemes such as private equity funds.
The first closing includes participation from Stanbic Investment Management Services (representing Axis Pensions Trust and other investors); Petra Advantage Pension Scheme and Petra Opportunity Pension Scheme; Databank Asset Management Services (representing the interests of the Ghana Education Service Occupational Pension Scheme); and the Venture Capital Trust Fund.
The investment strategy for IGVCF is to partner with profitable SMEs with strong growth potential across various sectors including food and agribusiness, education, healthcare, inclusive financial services, industrial services (including services for the mining and oil and gas sectors) as well as light manufacturing. The fund will make equity, quasi equity or debt investments in SMEs mainly in Ghana and also in Côte d’Ivoire.
3. Fund for Export Development in Africa secures $670m
The Fund for Export Development in Africa (FEDA), the impact investment arm of the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), announced its first close of $670 million across its four fund strategies.
Of the $670 million raised, $270 million is earmarked for the FEDA Direct Equity Fund I, which will provide equity and quasi-equity financing to businesses aligned with FEDA’s mandate. $250 million is allocated to the Strategic Initiatives Fund, a proprietary fund established by Afreximbank to implement landmark and high impact greenfield investments in sectors critical to the growth of intra-African trade and value-added export development across the African continent.
The third strategy involves the implementation of a private credit fund, Africa Credit Opportunities Fund, L.P. (ACOF), jointly sponsored by FEDA and Gateway Partners Group with $125 million committed. ACOF will invest in credit instruments to support trade enablement and growth in Africa. FEDA’s fourth strategy involves a $25 million venture fund to provide equity, quasi-equity and venture debt financing to high-impact early-stage ventures across Africa.
4. Alitheia IDF leads $11m investment round in SweepSouth
SweepSouth, an online home services platform with a presence across Africa, announced that it has completed a $11 million investment round led by Alitheia IDF, Africa’s first and largest gender-lens private equity fund. The size of the round, which is SweepSouth’s largest to date, is a result of strong growth in the company’s valuation and social impact since the previous funding round. Current investors Naspers Foundry, The Michael and Susan Dell Foundation, and Futuregrowth Asset Management all participated in this new round, as did new investors Endeavor Catalyst, Endeavor’s Harvest Fund, Caruso Ventures, and E4E Africa.
Co-founded in 2014 by Aisha Pandor and Alen Ribic, SweepSouth has a presence in Africa’s four key tech markets: South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, and Egypt. This latest round of funding will allow the company to further develop and grow its infrastructure and team in South Africa, to expand to new regions, and build a strong tech presence across the African continent and beyond.
5. Climate Fund Managers leads $74m solar investment
The Norwegian solar development and investment company, Empower New Energy, signed an agreement to raise $74 million from a consortium led by Climate Fund Managers (CFM), manager of the Climate Investor One (CIO) fund.
The partnership plans to develop, finance, own and operate an initial 150 MW of solar projects in Africa over the next three years. This milestone will see Empower become one of the leading renewable investment platform companies serving the commercial and industrial (C&I) market in its target markets in Africa.
Norfund is investing $12.5 million in this capital raise. In addition, the investor consortium is joined by Janeiro Energy AS, an investment company partly owned by Svein Harald Øygard, a profiled Norwegian economist and investor.