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. FMO and Cathay AfricInvest Innovation invest in South African agritech startup

FMO and Cathay AfricInvest Innovation have made an investment in Aerobotics, a South African agritech startup developing intelligent tools to feed the world. Aerobotics enables tree and fruit farmers not only to monitor their crops but also to increase their overall yield and reduce their footprint, through a combination of satellite and drone imagery coupled with machine learning algorithms.

The investment is part of a R250 million (about $16.5 million) series B round led by Naspers Foundry with participation from the FMO Ventures Program and the Cathay AfricInvest Innovation Fund.

2. Minet Group and Africa Lighthouse Capital acquire Aon’s operations in Botswana

Pan-African risk advisory firm Minet Group and private equity company Africa Lighthouse Capital have announced their intention to acquire Aon’s shareholding in Aon Holdings Botswana, subject to regulatory approval.

Minet Group is Aon’s largest Global Network Correspondent. Minet Group has been rapidly expanding its African footprint since 2017 through the acquisition of Aon’s operations in Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.

Aon, a global professional services firm providing a broad range of risk, retirement and health solutions, operates through correspondent arrangements in a number of countries on the African continent and globally. This transaction will further enhance Aon’s comprehensive correspondent network on the continent, backed by an African-owned company. The new entity in Botswana will have the benefit of consistency in leadership and staffing, with Barnabas Mavuma, currently MD of Aon Botswana, continuing to lead the business supported by the local management team.

3. Ilara Health raises $3.75m, led by TLcom Capital

Ilara Health, a healthtech start-up focused on bringing essential, affordable and life-saving diagnostics to African consumers, has raised $3.75 million in series A funding led by TLcom Capital, with participation from DOB Equity, Global Ventures and Chandaria Capital. The fast-growing Nairobi-based company will use the funding to expand its diagnostic reach across the continent and to accelerate the development of its integrated patient health management platform.

llara Health powers existing primary care facilities with next-generation point of care diagnostic tools to bridge the diagnostic gap across sub-Saharan Africa. The vast majority of clinical decisions often require some form of laboratory diagnosis, but in many peri-urban and rural locations diagnostic services are non-existent, leading to high rates of preventable death and illness. Ilara Health works to meet this unmet need by increasing patient access to life-saving tests and screenings and enabling local providers to improve their core business and health service quality. The diagnostic data points generated at a patients’ first contact will facilitate ongoing patient management through Ilara Health’s closed-loop patient management system as well as identify previously nonexistent insights on local disease burdens and trends across underserved geographies.

4. STANLIB raises $370m for South African infrastructure fund

STANLIB has announced that it has successfully raised R5.5 billion (about $370.2 million) from a wide range of prominent South African investors for the STANLIB Infrastructure Fund II, launched in June this year. The fund will have a fourth and final close in February 2021 where it is aiming to raise a further R2.4 billion (about $161.6 million).

The fund will invest mainly in South African post-construction infrastructure projects but also has the capacity to invest in greenfield projects and aims to generate a real return that is correlated with CPI for investors.

5. West Africa: Solar pay-as-you-go distributor raises $8.5m

Oolu, a solar distributor in West Africa, has closed a $8.5 million series B investment round led by independent renewable energy developer RP Global. Additional participating investors included Persistent Energy Capital, Shell-seeded impact investor All On, Gaia Impact Fund and DPI Energy Ventures.

Oolu’s mission is to provide affordable energy access to rural and peri-urban customers in West Africa. Since its inception in 2015, the company has sold over 60,000 solar home systems to customers in the region. In addition to a large distribution and service network, Oolu employs over 250 full-time employees and is run by a Dakar-based management team of whom 50% are women. With this investment, Oolu will expand its core product offering to meet the needs of its current and future customers and further develop its operations in West Africa.

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