- Proparco and FMO have together channelled €40 million into a new 26 Megawatt co-generation power plant that will help SCOUL, Uganda’s third largest sugar manufacturing company, produce green electricity at a competitive price to sell on to the national grid.
- Calvert Impact Capital has invested US$5 million in Palestinian housing microfinance firm Vitas Palestine, which for 24 years has extended loans to small businesses for housing improvements to low-income Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.
- Agence Française de Développement (AFD), has released key figures on its activity in 2017. The public institution’s €10.4 billion in commitments marks an 11 percent increase in its activities in a year, part of a 25 percent increase over the past two years. Africa, AFD’s priority region, accounted for around €5.2 billion of the institution’s commitments in 2017.
- Vantage Capital, Africa’s largest mezzanine fund manager, has made its first investment in Kenya by investing US$8 million in the Rosslyn Riviera Shopping Mall in Nairobi. The investment is Vantage Capital’s seventh transaction in its US$280 million fund, Fund III, 55 percent of which is allocated to countries outside of South Africa.
- Swedfund, Sweden’s development finance institution, has invested 126 million Swedish krona in the Evolution II Fund, which aims to bring clean energy supply and resource efficiency to countries in sub-Saharan Africa.The investment will be used to build and operate power stations that produce renewable energy in countries including Zambia, Ethiopia, Nigeria and Uganda. Evolution II invests in affordable, least-cost, low-carbon clean energy infrastructure projects and promotes growth in resource efficiency technologies, products and businesses
- Pearl Capital Partners is providing soy products processor Ugandan agribusiness Sesaco with 1.6 billion Ugandan Shilling to enhance technical and governance aspects of the business.
- International Finance Corporation (IFC), Orange Digital Ventures and Social Capital have come together in financial support of Africa Talking’s cloud-based software platform, which virtualises telco infrastructure across the continent. The platform also provides access to a robust and growing community of more than 20,000 software developers in Africa that help growing digital companies create applications more efficiently
- Dubai-based BECO Capital has led a Series A investment of US$8 million in an Egyptian ride-sharing startup called Swvl. Swvl is a bus-sharing service that offers an alternative to other modes of public transportation.
- Partech Ventures has made its maiden investment of US$3 million in Lagos-based TradeDepot through its Partech Africa fund. The platform helps retailers distribute goods in the competitive consumer goods sector in Africa. TradeDepot gives small retailers visibility of prices and discounts available across all major brands so that they may order products for delivery to a convenient depot.