Investec Asset Management has exited from its mezzanine investment in SA Taxi, the first financial services provider to focus solely on the taxi industry in South Africa. 

SA Taxi is a market leader in enabling the financial inclusion of local minibus taxi entrepreneurs.

The company currently finances over 26,000 of the estimated 200,000 minibus taxis operating in South Africa and has empowered over 42,000 SMEs, and a book size of over R7.2bn. 

SA Taxi is funded both locally and internationally by a diversified pool of debt investors.

SA Taxi does not only extend credit but also provides allied business services that support the SMEs in managing their businesses. 

Each vehicle financed has a wider impact too, including job creation and ensuring the sustainability of the taxi industry, a fundamental model of transport in South Africa.

Investec invested in March 2011 through its first African private equity fund to support SA Taxi, a subsidiary of JSE-listed Transaction Capital, with whom Investec Asset Management has had a strong and longstanding relationship.

Gerben Dijkstra, Investment Principal, Investec Asset Management, said: “In supporting a firm such as SA Taxi, with a high quality service offering led by an experienced management team, we are very excited to have been a part of catalysing a vital market sector that has a stimulating effect on the national economy at many different levels.”