Investec Asset Management, one of the largest investors in Africa, has successfully closed its sophomore fund, the Investec Africa Private Equity Fund 2 (IAPEF 2) at $295m.

John Green, Global Head of Client Group at Investec Asset Management, said “We are very pleased to have achieved a final close on our second African private equity fund. This marks a further step in the development of our African investment capability, one which now operates across the liquidity spectrum and capital structure.‎ We continue to see opportunity on the continent and have already begun deploying Fund 2 capital into some very interesting companies there."

As with its first African fund, IAPEF 1, launched in 2008, IAPEF 2 will focus broadly on African consumer sector businesses and will diversify geographically across the continent, continuing the strategy of IAPEF 1 which has exposure across 10 African countries.

IAPEF2 has already made three investments – into wiGroup, Africa’s dominant mobile transacting technology provider, IDM, the leading consumer debt management company in South Africa, and a further investment into IHS, the mobile towers company in which Investec Asset Management first invested in 2011.

The investor base includes pension funds, endowments, fund of funds and development finance institutions from across the US, Europe, the UK and Africa.

Francois van der Spuy, Head of Private Equity at Investec Asset Management, said: “We are delighted with the tremendous support garnered for our distinctive African private equity strategy. The final close comes at a time of significant turbulence, especially in the currency markets. However, we believe the three investments to date offer both significant resilience and exciting growth prospects. We look forward to adding more high quality and high growth companies to the portfolio.”