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. African payments company closes $170m funding, led by Avenir and Tiger Global
Flutterwave, a payments technology company in Africa, announced it has secured $170 million from a group of international investors as part of a successful series C round. The round was led by growth-equity firms Avenir Growth Capital and Tiger Global with participation from new and existing investors.
Founded by entrepreneur Olugbenga Agboola in 2016, the company’s valuation is considered to be more than $1 billion. The fundraise brings the total investment in Flutterwave to $225 million and is one of only a very small number of African fintech companies to have raised significant funds in a period of widespread disruption and economic uncertainty.
2. Temasek and LeapFrog Investments in $500m partnership
Temasek, an investment company headquartered in Singapore, has entered into a $500 million strategic partnership with global impact investment group LeapFrog Investments.
The strategic partnership will take the form of a multi-fund investment by Temasek to anchor LeapFrog’s future funds. Temasek will also take a minority stake in LeapFrog and provide growth capital to support the expansion of the LeapFrog team and investment capabilities across Asia and Africa. LeapFrog and its investment process will continue to be managed and controlled by its team of partners, with Temasek taking one non-executive seat on LeapFrog’s management board.
3. IFC leads Savannah Fund II’s first close
IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, announced an investment in the Savannah Fund, a technology seed fund in Africa, to increase lending to start-ups across sub-Saharan Africa.
IFC led the fund’s first close investing $3 million in the $25 million fundraising. The Women’s Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative, or We-Fi, invested $500,000. This is Savannah Fund’s second seed fund.
4. Convergence Partners fund in line for $25m IFC investment
The IFC is considering an equity investment of up to $25 million in Convergence Partners Digital Infrastructure Fund (CPDIF), a digital infrastructure investment vehicle focused on sub-Saharan Africa, seeking $250 million in third party commitments and to comprise two parallel funds in South Africa and Mauritius. The fund’s strategy is to invest in companies operating in the digital technology sector and ICT infrastructure with a geographical focus on Nigeria, Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Ethiopia, South Africa, Kenya, Uganda, Zambia, Tanzania, Mozambique, Botswana.
The fund will be managed by Convergence Partners Africa Limited and advised by Convergence Partners Management Proprietary Limited.
5. SunFunder’s SET Fund reaches close, with new investors including OeEB and Bank of America
SunFunder has fully closed the oversubscribed $70 million Solar Energy Transformation (SET) Fund, following an investment by OeEB, the development bank of Austria.
OeEB joins other institutional, impact, foundation and individual investors in the blended finance vehicle focused on distributed solar and storage investments in Africa and Asia that help to mitigate climate change and improve energy access.
The SET Fund has received investments from Swedfund, Bank of America, Mercy Investment Services, The Schmidt Family Foundation and several individual investors, including from the Toniic impact investor network. They followed anchor first close investors the US Development Finance Corporation (DFC), Calvert Impact Capital, Ceniarth and the IKEA Foundation. DFC is also a risk tool partner of the SET Fund, alongside Sida and MFX Solutions.
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