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. AIIM invests $90m in new data centre joint venture
African Infrastructure Investment Managers (AIIM) and N+ONE Datacenters, an African data centre owner and operator, are joining forces to develop a new pan-African data centre and cloud services platform with a short-term target capacity of 40 MW. N+ONE will contribute its existing portfolio of digital infrastructure assets and extensive products in Morocco, while AIIM will be contributing an initial $90 million of growth equity through its latest pan-African infrastructure fund, African Infrastructure Investment Fund 4 (AIIF4).
The platform will focus on the development of hyperscale and wholesale carrier-neutral facilities to provide solutions to enterprise, government and hyperscale customers across the continent. The partnership with AIIM paves the way for N+ONE to further expand its existing campuses in Morocco and Senegal while developing new hyperscale locations in response to customer demand.
2. SEAF backs tea company
Private equity manager SEAF, in partnership with the US Development Finance Corporation (DFC), USAID, and ABCapital, have announced the close of an investment in Orient Tea, a fast-growing Tunisian food company. The investment was made through SEAF’s Tunisia Resilience Fund and SEAF Covid-19 Global Gender Lens Emergency Loan Finance, an investment vehicle funded by the DFC that focuses on addressing the impact of Covid-19 on SMEs supporting women.
Founded in 2013, Orient Tea is a food company that produces instant natural tea products under the brand Kyufi. Orient Tea operates in Ben Arous, a city in northeastern Tunisia that experienced the early effects of Covid and faced restrictive lockdowns and the closure of key distribution channels. Orient Tea quickly adopted an agile and proactive method to tackle this crisis by pivoting towards retail and B2B networks. To scale, Orient Tea required capital to enhance its digital presence and online brand awareness, as well as improve and extend its warehousing capacity in light of supply chain disruptions.
3. Left Lane Capital leads LemFi’s $33m Series A round
LemFi, a fintech platform transforming financial services for immigrants, has raised a $33 million Series A round led by Left Lane Capital. Other investors included Y-Combinator, Zrosk, Global Founders Capital, and Olive Tree.
Each year, millions of immigrants move abroad to start new lives, and the biggest hurdle they face is access to financial services. In 2020, founders Ridwan Olalere and Rian Cochran joined forces to solve these challenges with a vision to build a platform that empowers the next generation of immigrants.
4. Beyond Capital Ventures and Variant invest in Kenyan inventory financier
Zanifu, a B2B fintech lender headquartered in Kenya, specialising in providing inventory supply chain financing to MSMEs, has secured $11.2 million in pre-series A financing.
The funding round, a combination of debt and equity financing, was led by Beyond Capital Ventures and Variant Investments. This significant capital injection will empower Zanifu to broaden its inventory finance offerings, targeting retailers and distributors within the FMCG supply chain.
5. South African VC completes second investment in public safety platform
Cape Town-headquartered venture capital firm HAVAÍC has announced a further investment in RapidDeploy following its participation in a bridge round in October last year. The VC firm has bolstered its stake with a second investment as part of RapidDeploy’s Series C equity round.
Founded in 2016, RapidDeploy is a cloud-native platform for public safety, delivering next-generation solutions and intelligent mission-critical data to 911 agencies across the United States. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, the Cape Town-born business is helping to reduce response times, enhance situational awareness, and drive better outcomes. RapidDeploy also empowers public safety leaders with data insights that improve emergency response workflows.
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