IFC and Quona Capital, with participation from existing investors Accion Venture Lab and Newid Capital, have invested $6.5m in Lulalend, South Africa’s first online automated provider of short-term funding for small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
Schroders, a global investment manager, has agreed to acquire a majority stake in Switzerland-headquartered microfinance and impact investor BlueOrchard.
Denham Capital, a global energy and resources private equity firm, has sold BioTherm Energy to Actis Capital, an emerging market investor, for an undisclosed sum.
responsAbility Investments AG, an impact asset manager, has closed a $175m securitization of loans to microfinance and SME-finance institutions in emerging markets.
Energy Access Ventures (EAV), an investor in smart infrastructure in Africa, and ElectriFI, a flexible financial facility funded by the EU, have co-invested in Solarise Africa, a pan-African clean energy and energy efficiency leasing company.
African Infrastructure Investment Managers (AIIM) has announced the final close of its pan-African infrastructure fund, AIIF3, which raised $320m from a diverse investor base across Africa, Europe and Asia.
Mediterrania Capital Partners has acquired through its third fund, MC III, an undisclosed stake in Aziza, a private Tunisian company operating in the food retail sector.
AHL Venture Partners, an impact investment firm in East Africa, has acted as lead investor in Crop Nutrition Laboratory Services (Cropnuts) in Kenya.
Meridiam and partners, ENGIE and FONSIS, have achieved final close for two solar photovoltaic projects, Kahone Solaire SA (35MW) and Kael Solaire SA (25MWp), located in the Diourbel region of Senegal.
XSML has announced an investment, through its African Rivers Fund, in Ice Industries (ICE), a producer of flake ice, which is used mainly to keep fresh produce cold and is an essential element for the fishing sector in Uganda.
Luxembourg-based InsuResilience Investment Fund has agreed to acquire a 39.25% stake in Royal Exchange General Insurance Company, one of the largest non-life insurance companies in Nigeria.
IDG Capital, Sequoia China, Source Code Capital, Meituan-Dianping, GSR Ventures and Opera have invested $50m in OPay, a provider of a rapidly growing mobile payment service and consumer platform.
Investec Asset Management (IAM) has completed its first private equity investment in Egypt, by acquiring control of Spinneys Egypt, a rapidly growing supermarket chain.
Actis has assumed the management rights on Abraaj Private Equity Fund IV (APEF IV), a global buyout fund, and Abraaj Africa Fund III (AAF III), a fund for investment in Sub-Saharan Africa.
