- Blended finance facility Climate Investor One has reached its third close at US$535 million. The fund provides the resources to finance wind, solar and hydro energy projects. The vehicle seeks to deliver more than 1.1 megawatts of new capacity and currently provides approximately 7 million people with 3.2 gigawatt years of affordable clean electricity. It is also expected to generate more than 10,000 jobs.
- Agence Française de Développement (AFD) has established The Minka Fund, a new vehicle designed to respond to crisis situations in fragile states in Africa. According to AFD, the fund is already being deployed in the field, although its resources have been doubled and could reach 200 million euros by 2019. The Minka fund is financed by the Financial Transaction Tax.
- Colony Capital has agreed to buy The Abraaj Group‘s African, Latin American and Turkey fund management businesses. The agreement follows a dispute between Abraaj Group and several of its investors, which include the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and International Finance Corporation (IFC), over the use of US$1 billion in funding from a healthcare finance facility.
- Kuramo Capital, a pan-African investment management group, has finished a round of Series A financing in Green Africa Airways, a value airline headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria.
- Nigeria’s digital payment and savings platform Piggybank has raised US$1.1 million to finance the growth of its business. The start-up gives savers options of daily, weekly or monthly deposits to achieve their savings targets without charging for withdrawal or monthly use. Piggybank currently has more than 53,000 monthly users.
- Private equity firm TPG’s Rise Fund has bought a US$70 million stake in a Hyderabad-based rooftop-commercial solar developer, Fourth Partner Energy. This responds to a steep rise in investments in solar energy in India. The country is ahead of schedule to reach its official renewable energy target of 175 gigawatts by 2022.
- IFC and DEG are among more than 50 institutions, including commercial investors and fintech firms, to jointly develop Guidelines for Investing in Responsible Digital Financial Services. The guidelines provide access to financial services at fair market conditions and give investors the ability to access new investments and manage risks more effectively.
- African telecommunications company Eaton Towers has postponed its planned US$2 billion initial public offering because market conditions may be depreciating valuations. Eaton Towers is part-owned by Ethos Private Equity. Its IPO was planned to take place on the London and Johannesburg exchanges and may now be postponed to next year.