African Development Partners Fund ‘Exceeds Target’ to Raise $900m

Development Partners International (DPI), an investment firm focused on Africa, has exceeded its impact fundraising target by $100 million, to raise a total of $900 million. DPI said it also raised an additional $250m of dedicated co-investment capital to bring a total of $1.15 billion for investments on the continent. Names of co-investors were not disclosed.

DPI said the fundraising establishes African Development Partners III Fund as one of the largest funds dedicated to investing global capital in Africa. ADP III will invest in “established and growing companies” in industries that benefit from Africa’s fast-growing middle class and the increasing digital transformation of the continent.

DPI said its investments will apply “the highest standards of impact and environmental, social and governance (“ESG”) work”, and aim to “contribute to” 10 of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals.

ADP III secured capital from a range of pension and sovereign wealth funds, development finance institutions, endowment and foundations, insurance companies, fund-of-funds, asset managers, and impact investors across North America, Europe, Middle East and Africa.

DPI said it added 25 new limited partners into its investor base, but did not disclose names of the investors in the fund. ADP III has made four investments to date, including:

• Channel VAS, a business providing mobile financial services;
• SICAM, a Tunisian tomato producer;
• Kelix Bio, a biopharmaceutical platform the company claims broadens access to speciality generic drugs across Africa; and
• MNT-Halan, which claims to be Egypt’s largest and fastest-growing lender to “unbanked” individuals.

DPI added it has a “significant pipeline” of investment opportunities across the continent, focused on sectors of the economy including financial services, healthcare, agri-business, education, and telecoms infrastructure.

Runa Alam, co-founder and chief executive of DPI, commented: “As we look towards the future with our ADP III fund, we will focus on innovation-driven companies leading the digital transformation of the economies in which they operate. In addition, our deep integration of impact and ESG initiatives in the investment life cycle has been widely recognised and ensures we are known as a trusted partner.”

ADP III was the first African fund signatory to the Operating Principles for Impact Management, an international market standard for impact investing, and the first to be granted 2x Flagship Fund status, as part of the 2x Challenge, a gender-lens initiative.

DPI has $2.8 billion in assets under management across its funds and committed co-investments.

Courtesy: Environmental Finance