Last week in brief... Where did this week go? Despite my best intentions, this week's weekly wrap is late, all the more ironic since last week saw one of the more active weeks of the year, as far as deal activity in Africa as concerned.

We lead with one of the biggest Africa-focused fundraising closes of the year so far. Johannesburg-based Capitalworks announced the firm had blown past its original goal and had secured commitments totaling R5 billion (or almost $275 million) for its latest private equity fund. Capitalworks Private Equity Fund III will invest in mid-market companies in South Africa with enterprise values ranging between R250 million (or $13.6 million) and R4 billion (or $275 million) and expects to build a portfolio of 8 to 10 companies for the fund over the next 3 or 4 years. t current exchange rates) for its third fund. Morgan Stanley Alternative Investment Partners is among the LPs attracted by the fund’s strategy and the attractive level of its targeted IRR.

There was news of another potential and large fund for Africa last week. Egypt's sovereign wealth fund is teaming up with New York-based Concord International Investments to launch a fund to target healthcare opportunities primarily in Egypt as well as elsewhere in the Middle East and Africa. The fund, which is initially aiming to raise $300 million, will build a platform of diversified healthcare assets to cater to the needs of the country’s burgeoning population as well as export their products and services.

Two other Africa-focused funds in the market at the moment are in line for DFI commitments. Development Partners International's planned $800 million fund is being considered for a $20 million investment by FinDev Canada. It would be the first time Canada's three-year-old development finance institution would be investing in one of the London-based private equity firm's funds.

Proparco is joining the ranks of investors committing capital to SPE Capital's Africa Industrialization Fund I, (SPE AIF I). The French DFI is investing $20 million in the fund, which is looking to raise $200 million by final close to back small and lower midcap companies operating in Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, and Tunisia. In a way, Proparco is re-upping for the investment team managing the fund, having previously backed the team when they worked at Swicorp's private equity unit before spinning out to become an independent firm.

In terms of deals, yet again venture capital transactions made up the majority of deals last week. Helium Health, an almost four-year-old healthcare technology startup based in Lagos, successfully closed its Series A round raising a total of $10 million from a group of existing and new investors led by Global Ventures and Asia Africa Investment & Consultingor AAIC. The firm will use the fresh capital for its growth plans, both expanding the number of customers in its current markets in Nigeria, Ghana, and Liberia and underwriting the company's strategy to penetrate new markets in North, East and Francophone West Africa over the course of this year.

VentureSouq has struck a deal to sell its 2-year old stake in Frontier Cars to fellow shareholder OLX Ventures, the early-stage investment arm of Naspers' classified business in an undisclosed deal. The sale is reportedly part of a $400 million offer made by OLX to all its fellow investors in the company to acquire their equity stakes which VentureSouq opted to accept. The status of the startup's other investors is unclear, but OLX is now the emerging markets' used-car market's majority shareholder.

Having backed Moringa Schools in October, DOB Equity is back again, investing additional equity in the Nairobi-based technology learning accelerator. The Dutch family-backed impact investor is investing an undisclosed amount of capital in the business, which Moringa will use to rapidly expand its provision of online learning programs to meet the increased demand caused by the Covid-19 outbreak. Since it began operations in 2014, Moringa has trained more than 1,800 students in East Africa.

Goodwell Investments has led a trio of investors backing Tanzania-based East Africa Fruits' Series A round. Between them, the three investors are investing $2.05 million in equity and $1.05 million in debt in the agribusiness firm. Over the next three years, the company estimates its services will be used by more than 10,000 farmers and 6,000 SME vendors.

In larger-scale deals, the European Bank for Reconstruction & Development is mulling an investment of $25 million in Humania Equity, a North Africa-focused healthcare platform which has been set up by Bait Al Batterjee Medical Company, (or BAB), a leading provider of healthcare and healthcare education services in the MENA region.

BAB, which already operates facilities with 2.500 beds and employs over 12,000 people, is looking to raise $360 million in a combination of equity and debt for Humania from, among others, another group of development finance institutions.

Vantage Capital announced a full exit from the mezzanine facility it provided to Vumatel following the business' success in refinancing the debt from a consortium of South African banks. Vantage had backed the company with R250 million (or $17 million) in 2016, filling a financing gap which the banks were unable to provide for the then two-year-old business.

In 2019, Vumatel was acquired by Community Investment Ventures Holdings, a private equity telecoms investment firm majority-owned by Remgro. That deal which was the culmination of an investment originally announced in June the year before, when CIVH took an initial 35% stake in the company as a precursor to an eventual buyout.

And finally this week, African Infrastructure Investment Managers, or AIIM, has structured two exit deals for its second fund, selling its holdings in two renewable energy assets to the infrastructure-focused private equity fund manager's IDEAS fund. The holdings in question are AIIF 2's 14% stake in Cookhouse, a wind farm in South Africa's Eastern Cape, and REISA, a solar PV facility in the country's Northern Cape. A representative declined to disclose the terms of either deal to Africa Capital Digest but noted that "...the returns outperformed the targets for the Fund supporting a strong outcome for investors."

That's it for this week. As always, you can review these and other stories by clicking through to this week's preview edition of the newsletter.

Allan Cunningham

Allan Cunningham is a senior media executive who has spent the last 15 years of his career working for some of the world’s most respected M&A and Private Equity media companies including Dow Jones’s publications Private Equity Analyst and VentureWire and most recently, The Deal. He has built a number of successful digital and event content businesses, both subscription and sponsor-supported, delivering information and content-marketing services to clients in the M&A and broader deal ecosystem. He recently struck out on his own and launched Rowayton Press, a multi-platform media company focused on the private capital opportunities in emerging and frontier markets. Mr. Cunningham holds a Bachelors degree from Liverpool John Moores University in the UK.

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