The Mastercard Foundation Africa Growth Fund, a Fund of Funds that works through African investment vehicles to support early-stage, growth-oriented small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) on the continent, has launched a new USD$200 million fund.
African SMEs struggle to obtain the finance they require to expand, limiting their potential. The Mastercard Foundation Africa Growth Fund addresses this issue by investing in and strengthening African investment vehicles, which in turn help African SMEs.
The Fund of Funds, in addition to providing capital for investment vehicles, provides a business development facility for their portfolio companies.
The Fund-of-Funds initiative will use gender-lens investing (GLI) principles to support the Mastercard Foundation’s Young Africa Works strategy, which aims to provide 30 million young Africans, particularly young women, with dignified and fulfilling work by 2030.
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A promising pipeline of 180 diverse investment vehicles, including Early-stage, Growth, Debt, and Seed VC Funds, as well as other non-traditional funds, has already been built. Two investment vehicles have already been approved for funding and will be announced shortly.
Implementation and key actors
A consortium of partners led by Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA) and including Investisseurs & Partenaires (I&P), Entrepreneurial Solutions Partners (ESP), Genesis Analytics, the Criterion Institute, and Africa Communications Media Group implements the Mastercard Foundation Africa Growth Fund.
I&P is the Fund Advisor for the Fund of Funds, and is in charge of sourcing, evaluating, and supporting the investment vehicles.
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