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. Vantage Capital announces first close of new mezzanine fund
Vantage Capital, Africa’s largest mezzanine fund manager, announced the successful first close on its fourth mezzanine fund. With $207 million of commitments from European and US-based commercial investors as well as development finance institutions (DFIs), including IFC, CDC Group and SIFEM, Vantage Mezzanine Fund IV is on track to reach its target total fund size of $350 million.
The fund will provide mid-sized African businesses with flexible capital that will enhance job creation and facilitate much-needed economic opportunities and growth – especially necessary for post-Covid-19 recovery.
2. Bryce Fort and Paul Maasdorp join forces with Alterra Capital Partners
Alterra Capital Partners, the Africa-focused private equity firm that spun out of Carlyle in 2020, is being joined by Bryce Fort and Paul Maasdorp, partners at Emerging Capital Partners (ECP), to launch a new African investment vehicle.
The Alterra leadership team will be: Bryce Fort, Eric Kump, Paul Maasdorp, Genevieve Sangudi and Bruce Steen.
Over the last ten years, the combined team has invested about $2 billion across a variety of sectors in Africa including telecoms, technology, healthcare, consumer and retail, infrastructure, financial services, logistics and business services. The partners of Alterra have an average of 12 years of Africa private equity experience and, over the last decade, have led over 25 transactions in companies that operate in more than 45 African countries.
Bryce Fort and Paul Maasdorp will continue to add value to current investments at ECP.
3. AgDevCo invests in Kenyan aquaculture company
AgDevCo has announced a multi-million-dollar mezzanine debt investment in Victory Farms, a rapidly growing aquaculture company in Kenya. AgDevCo’s investment will support the company’s continued growth and impact, including the construction of a feed mill and expansion into new countries in the East Africa region.
For decades the wild catch from Africa’s great lakes have been declining, with the result that local markets rely on imported frozen fish, often of low quality. Victory Farms saw an opportunity to supply affordable protein to consumers in a more sustainable way by growing tilapia, a native species.
4. South Africa: RMB Corvest in security products deal
Private equity firm RMB Corvest and Imbani Private Equity have acquired a significant shareholding in Insulation Thermal Acoustic Security Company (ITAS).
ITAS, founded by Johan Luyt with the support of his wife, Anneke Luyt, is a specialist manufacturer of value-added, end-to-end physical security products, which target the protection of people and cash, along with secure access control systems. The business designs and manufactures cost effective, low maintenance, electro-mechanical, physical security safety equipment and offers these end-to-end solutions to a variety of industries.
5. Alitheia Capital participates in $8.3m Nigerian fintech fundraise
Nigerian fintech company Lidya has completed its $8.3 million pre-series B funding round, led by Alitheia Capital through its uMunthu Fund.
Lidya is a digital platform that provides financing to SMEs, through the use of technology and proprietary credit scoring algorithms. In addition, Lidya has created dashboards and tools to help businesses manage their receivables and cashflow to build credit scores that unlock higher credit limits and affordable rates.
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