There may be some hope on the horizon for African women-led startups, after all. Alitheia IDF Fund, an joint venture fund targeted at growing African women-led businesses has closed its second round of funding at $75 million and will announce its first investments soon.

“We are excited about this fund,” Temilade Denton, Impact and ESG manager at Alitheia Capital said in an interview noting that it has taken the firm quite some time to accomplish their fund target.

Here Is All You Need To Know

• Called Alitheia IDF, it is an SME investment fund for businesses with high-growth potential in Africa. The fund invests in businesses that are majority-owned, majority-run or mainly created to serve women. 

“Through these three main criteria, we apply a gender lens to invest in businesses across western and southern Africa,” says Temilade Denton, Impact and ESG manager at Alitheia Capital, to TechCabal.

• The priority sectors for this fund are agriculture, agro-processing and in companies that provide essential goods and services. 
• The fund will provide capital of between two and five million dollars to high potential mid-sized companies in 6 countries: Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, Lesotho, Zimbabwe and Zambia.
• Alitheia IDF had an initial target of $100 million. The Africa Development Bank (AfDB) seeded it with an equity investment of $12.5 million in December 2015. 
• In November 2019, FinDev Canada, the development finance institution for Canada, made a $7.5 million investment in the fund.
• Denton is upbeat that the fund will make a difference in the private equity investment space as there are not many other firms seeking to particularly target women-centered businesses.
• The fund is expected to invest in about 12 SMEs with the potential to scale beyond their countries of origin. Some of its target outcomes include creating 5,000 jobs for women and providing up to 100,000 women with access to essential products and services.

A Look At The Alitheia IDF Fund And How Startups May Pitch To The Fund

• Alitheia IDF is a joint venture fund established in 2014 between Alitheia Capital, a private equity investment and advisory firm in Nigeria, and IDF Capital in South Africa.
• Alitheia Capital was founded by Olajumoke Akinwunmi and Tokunboh Ishmael. The latter chairs the board of the Africa Venture Capital and Private Equity Association (AVCA). IDF Capital was founded in 2008 by Polo Leteka, and counts Shell and Telkom among its investors.
• Apart from the Alitheia IDF fund, Alitheia Capital is a West African investment partner for Goodwell Investments, a Netherlands-based early stage investment firm in financial services and tech companies in India and Africa.
• Through Goodwell’s funds, Alitheia has invested in Paga, MAX.ng and Lidya, the fintech company that expanded operations to Poland and Lithuania in October 2019.

To know more about how to pitch to the Alitheia fund, please visit there website here. While there click on Get Capital.

Charles Rapulu Udoh

Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer who has advised startups across Africa on issues such as startup funding (Venture Capital, Debt financing, private equity, angel investing etc), taxation, strategies, etc. He also has special focus on the protection of business or brands’ intellectual property rights ( such as trademark, patent or design) across Africa and other foreign jurisdictions.
He is well versed on issues of ESG (sustainability), media and entertainment law, corporate finance and governance.
He is also an award-winning writer