Private Equity

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – MARA, a cryptocurrency company backed by Coinbase Global Inc., said it will advise the president of the Central African Republic after the nation became the second globally after El Salvador to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender.  Newly established MARA also announced its entry into Nigeria and Kenya, and that that it had secured $23 million in funding from companies including Coinbase, Alameda Research LLC and Distributed Global LLC.  “MARA will become the official crypto…

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – South Africa’s Government Employees Pension Fund will invest about 25 billion rand ($1.6 billion) in unlisted companies across the continent, according to people with knowledge of the matter, renewing a contract with its adviser more than a year after it initially expired.  The Public Investment Corp., which manages more than 2.1 trillion rand in assets, will decide on the investments, according to a joint statement the two companies released on…

NAIROBI (Capital Markets in Africa) – Zoscales Partners AG, a private equity fund that invests in small and medium enterprises in East Africa, has begun a $200 million fundraising round whose first close is scheduled in the second half of this year and final one in 2023.  The International Finance Corp. and the Dutch development bank, FMO, invested in the first round that raised $75 million and may participate in the new one, whose proceeds will target…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Nigerian agriculture startup ThriveAgric raised $56.4 million in fresh capital to expand to new African markets, including Ghana, Zambia and Kenya. The funding will help the company grow its base of more than 200,000 farmers, according to a statement on Tuesday. The funding follows a $9 million equity raise in 2020. While smallholders dominate farming across Africa, they are faced with significant barriers including a lack of access to…

NAIROBI (Capital Markets in Africa) – SoftBank Vision Fund 2 led a $40 million funding round for Apollo Agriculture, a Kenyan-based technology firm seeking to expand its business of helping farmers access market and financial services.  The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Yara Growth Ventures and Endeavor Catalyst are among other investors who participated in the round. Apollo is pushing to increase the number of clients on its platform and “invest in the products that take a…

JOHANNESBURG (Capital Markets in Africa) – Interpreting the changes that take place in private equity (PE) prices over time isn’t straightforward as many of the drivers are unobservable. But there are some noticeable shifts in the marketplace that prove how PE is performing, says Heleen Goussard, head of Alternative Investment Services at global investment firm RisCura. Their latest Bright Africa Private Equity research focuses on the PE ecosystem in 2021 including a look at fundraising, dry powder,…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Helios Investment Partners LLP is in talks with African telecom operators and banks about ways the private-equity firm can help them cash in on their mobile-money and digital-payments platforms. Africa’s largest wireless carriers, including MTN Group Ltd. and Airtel Africa Plc, are among companies exploring how to unlock value from their multi-billion dollar fintech operations. Johannesburg-based MTN is looking to finalize plans to spin off the lucrative unit by the end of March, while…