Last week in brief... We kick off this week with news of a test partnership rather than a capital investment. If the test works well, then we suspect that that might change, and significantly so. Zipline, a venture-backed drone delivery service already operating in Rwanda and Ghana, has agreed to pilot its distribution capabilities with the world's largest retailer, Walmart. The 4-year old business will start testing its service from a retail location near Walmart's HQ in Arkansas. Starting early next year, ZIpline will supply the retailer's customers living within a 50-mile radius of the store on-demand delivery, by drone, of their health and wellness products.
Helios Investment Partners is teaming up with two former CEOs of significant reinsurance businesses to launch Africa Specialty Risks, a new business in the sector. The Africa-focused private equity fund is using an approach it's taken before, partnering with experienced executives with successful track records to build market-leading businesses on the continent. The two executives involved are Mikir Shah, a former CEO of AXA Africa Specialty Risks, and Bryan Howett, a former CEO of Old Mutual's pan-African reinsurance operations.
In Egypt, EFG Hermes's private equity arm has sold its stake in a 365MW portfolio of solar photovoltaic assets in the UK to the subsidiary of one of South East Asia's largest utilities. The deal gives the portfolio of assets an enterprise value of approximately $646 million. The sale is being transacted by Vortex Energy, EFG Hermes's renewable energy platform, and returns a 1.5x cash on cash multiple and an IRR of about 14% to its investors after just 2 years.
PAPE Fund Managers has agreed to acquire a stake in DDS Group, a well-established beverage dispensing and refrigeration business with operations in 12 countries in Africa. The deal, which was led by investment principals Bulelwa Ntshingwa and Justin Babaya for PAPE Funds, gives the private equity firm's third fund a 45% stake in the business. Founded in 1995, DDS now employs 400 people and operates 130,000 assets across all its markets.
Africa Special Opportunities Capital has sold the majority stake in Okuhle Mediawhich it acquired in 2017 to Trace Holdings, a media content production and distribution company headquartered in Paris. The terms of the deal, which was inked in August, were not made available. Based in Cape Town, Okuhle Media is an award-winning producer of media content in South Africa. Founded in 2005, the firm provides television recording, broadcasting, production, post-production, and content marketing services for both its domestic and international markets.
Digital media company Big Cabal Media has secured an investment from Lagos-based Platform Capital which it will use for marketing and product development purposes. The firm wants to expand its audience reach and invest in its content and technology products. Big Cabal Media has developed a stable of high-value content brands, producing online publications and content services focused on Africa for audiences all over the world.
Valenture Institute, an online private high school headquartered in South African, has secured an investment from GSV Ventures, a venture firm with a focus on edtech startups. The business is landing $7 million from the San Francisco-based venture investor which it will use to expand the number of subjects and learning formats it sells as well as continue to broaden the reach of its offerings to students overseas.
In the impact investing space, Bamboo Capital features twice this week. In the first, the ABC Fund, which Bamboo co-manages in partnership with Injaro Investments, announced two small debt deals in West African agribusinesses. The second involves an investor in Bamboo itself. Palladium has agreed to take a minority stake in the impact investor as part of a broader partnership between the two organizations which are both seeking to mobilize significant private sector capital for impact investment initiatives.
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 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
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