Injaro Investments, an Africa-focused private equity and private credit fund manager, has announced the launch of its third fund of USD20 million, backed by local pension funds and a first of its kind for Ghana. According to Jerry Parkes, CEO of the fund, the fund is created to support mission-focused SMEs.
Established in 2009, Injaro Investments (Injaro) is a private equity firm focused on SME investments in Africa. The fund’s investment approach is built on the provision of finance, business assistance, and capacity building to highpotential SMEs.
The fund has invested largely in business concepts that fundamentally benefit small scale farmers across West Africa, with several of them being located in relatively poor Sahelian countries. The portfolio therefore comprises enterprises in the poultry value chain, seed cultivation, and shea butter processing.
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“Our investment in Nafaso, a company in Burkina Faso, tells one of the more inspiring stories. The founder, who started out as a subsistence farmer, grew to become the largest seed producer in Burkina Faso and is now a regional supplier of seeds with exports across ECOWAS member states, including Liberia and Nigeria. The company had created significant impact (over 350,000 beneficiaries) and grown its top line by three times over the investment period. Our most recent achievement was when the London Stock Exchange published its inaugural edition of the Companies to Inspire Africa report. 11 out of 300 featured companies in the report were in the agriculture sector, and 5 of them were part of the Injaro portfolio — Agricare, Comptoir 2000, Faso Kaba, Nafaso, and Proveto,” Jerry Parkes said.
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer, who has several years of experience working in Africa’s burgeoning tech startup industry. He has closed multi-million dollar deals bordering on venture capital, private equity, intellectual property (trademark, patent or design, etc.), mergers and acquisitions, in countries such as in the Delaware, New York, UK, Singapore, British Virgin Islands, South Africa, Nigeria etc. He’s also a corporate governance and cross-border data privacy and tax expert.
As an award-winning writer and researcher, he is passionate about telling the African startup story, and is one of the continent’s pioneers in this regard. You can book a session and speak with him using the link: https://insightsbyexperts.com/view_expert/charles-rapulu-udoh