Recent impact deals in Africa:
Agriculture and food systems. Impact investor Acumensecured $90 million toward a $120 million goal for its second Resilient Agriculture Fund, with the Green Climate Fund and the Financing for Agri-SMEs in Africa fund, or FASA, investing as catalytic first-loss investors alongside Dutch entrepreneurial development bank FMO, France’s Proparco, Sweden’s Swedfund, Belgium’s BIO, and a family office… Calvert Impact Capitalextended debt to the Incofin-managed Fairtrade Access Fund to finance agricultural cooperatives, producer groups, and small enterprises in Africa, Latin America, and Asia… Family office A to Z Impactinvested in Nigeria-based CropSafe to support agricultural processing and exports.
Climate resilience. Catalyst Fundclosed $30 million toward a $40 million goal for its first fund investing in early-stage climate adaptation technologies across Africa, backed by the International Finance Corporation, FASA, the Shell Foundation, the Trafigura Foundation, Speedinvest, BlinkCV, FSD Africa, and the Cisco Foundation.
Inclusive economies. The Global Innovation Fundreached a $50 million first close for GIF Growth, an evergreen debt fund that will provide growth financing to enterprises across Africa and Asia… Kuramo Capital Managementclinched $500 million from African pension funds and development finance institutions for several investment vehicles… South Africa’s E Squared InvestmentsbackedOld Mutual’ssixth South Africa private equity fund.
Small business finance. TLG Capitalreached a $120 million second close for its second Africa private credit fund to provide bank-guaranteed loans to small and midsize businesses… FSD Africa Investments committed$1.3 million to Iungo Capital, a mezzanine investor in East African small businesses… Impact Fund Denmarkprovided €25 million ($28.6 million) in subordinated debt to Côte d’Ivoire’s NSIA Bank to expand lending to micro and small businesses… The Nairobi Business Angel Networkinvested in Nuru Solutions, which provides agricultural data used to develop insurance and credit products for smallholder farmers.
Clean energy and climate tech. Maia Capitalprovided 150 million South African rand ($9.2 million) in mezzanine debt to Nesa Power, a commercial and industrial solar and battery storage developer… Tunisia-based accelerator Open Startuplanded backing from KfW’sAfricaGrow Fund for Openers First, a $3 million investment vehicle providing local-currency SAFE notes to African startups developing health, climate, and artificial intelligence technologies
