Convergence Partners, a private equity investor focused on technology in Sub-Saharan Africa, has invested $10 million in growth funding in 42Markets Group, a fintech incubator and investment group for financial and capital markets.
The investment will support 42Markets’ portfolio companies, Mesh, Andile and FXFlow, with the majority of the funding being deployed in Mesh.
Mesh is a multi-sided platform designed to make financial markets more accessible to all. It allows market participants to issue, trade, settle and lifecycle-manage multiple classes of digital securities. The platform was launched in South Africa a year ago and will use the investment to expand operations and invest in regulatory compliance. The investment will also allow Mesh to launch its next operating company in the EU.
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Andile Ngcaba, chairman of Convergence Partners, says that he is excited about the investment in 42Markets, as the group’s expertise in fintech, regtech, and decentralised finance aligns perfectly with Convergence Partners’ vision of bridging the digital divide and improving access to underserved regions. The investment will allow the two firms to work together to democratise financial markets and enhance accessibility.
Brandon Doyle, CEO of Convergence Partners, says that the investment in 42Markets marks one of the firm’s first investments in the digital transformation of financial markets. Doyle sees 42Markets as an emerging winner in this space, with a long track record of consistent double-digit growth and a quality leadership team with deep expertise and experience in the capital markets.
The investment in 42Markets Group is part of Convergence Partners’ Convergence Partners Digital Infrastructure Fund (CPDIF), which raised $296 million earlier this year, surpassing its initial target by over 18%. Fourteen leading global development finance institutions (DFIs) based in Europe, the US, and Africa are investors in CPDIF. 42Markets hopes to engage with these investors to explore further opportunities to work together.
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42Markets’ other group businesses operating in Africa include Andile, a capital markets services and advisory firm that brings market and industry expertise to help banks streamline and automate their IT operations infrastructure, and FXFlow, an early-stage platform business that creates value for importers and exporters in regulated markets.
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