Weekly Digest 1

04 Aug 2021

A collection of news across the African private equity and venture capital industry |

Pearl Capital Partners' invests US$2.5mn in Pura Organic Agro Tech Ltd

Yield Uganda Investment Fund (Yield Fund), which is managed by Pearl Capital Partners, has announced an investment of US$2.5mn in is thrilled to Pura Organic Agro Tech Ltd (Pura) structured in both straight equity and patient debt investment. This marks the Fund’s eighth investment into the Ugandan agriculture sector but more uniquely, the first substantial value addition investment into the cassava value chain.

6 August 2021 | Source: Pearl Capital Partners

Edge Growth and ASISA ESD invest ZAR20mn in I-G3N

Edge Growth and the ASISA ESD initiative have invested R20m in I-G3N, the only black empowered female-owned SME to successfully develop lithium-ion batteries specifically for the African continent.

5 August 2021 | Source: Africa Global Funds

UK Export Finance (UKEF) supports hospital construction in Ivory Coast through EUR241mn facility

UKEF’s largest-ever loan in francophone Africa will finance specialised medical and non-medical equipment sourced from the UK. The project will provide fully-equipped modern healthcare services for a catchment area of more than a million people.

5 August 2021 | Source: www.gov.uk

Nigerian startup MVX raises US$1.3mn in seed funding to make freight shipping and trade finance easier for African businesses

MVX raised money for its seed round from Africa-focused firms Kepple Africa, The Continent Venture Partners, Founders Factory, Launch Africa, and Capital Oak. Some angel investors in the U.S., Japan, Nigeria, and South Africa also participated.

5 August 2021 | Source: TechCrunch

Gavi, MedAccess and GlaxoSmithKline join forces to guarantee boost for Malaria Vaccine

Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and MedAccess announced an innovative financing agreement to guarantee continued production of the antigen for the RTS,S/AS01e malaria vaccine in advance of key decisions regarding its roll-out.

4 August 2021 | Source: MedAccess

Naspers Foundry leads ZAR160mn million (US$11mn) Series A investment in insurtech company Naked

Naspers, through its early-stage tech investment vehicle Naspers Foundry, announced a ZAR120mn (US$8.3mn) investment in Naked, the artificial intelligence (AI)-driven insurtech company that offers a new, fully digital way for consumers to insure their cars, homes, and valuables.

4 August 2021 | Source: Naspers

Bamboo Capital Partners makes commitment to deploy US$1bn of impact investments

Bamboo Capital Partners, the asset management arm of Palladium, confirmed its commitment to deploy US$1bn of impact investments over the next three years – at the latest. This comes as the pioneering impact investor publishes its 2020 Impact Report. Despite the challenges of Covid-19, Bamboo delivered a positive impact on additional nine million lives in developing markets in 2020, bringing the cumulative impact of its investee companies to 193 million lives.

3 August 2021 | Source: Bamboo Capital Partners

Challenger bank, Kuda, raises US$55mn in Series B funding round

The funding was made at a valuation of US$500mn, and it comes on the back of some impressive early growth for the startup. Kuda now has 1.4 million registered users, which is more than double the number it had in March when it had 650,000 registered users — a figure it revealed when announcing its Series A of US$25mn led by Valar Ventures.

2 August 2021 | Source: TechCrunch

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