Partech Ventures launches USD 70 mn African Fund
Transatlantic Venture Capital Firm Partech Ventures has announced the launch of its Partech Africa fund, which has secured over USD 70 million commitments toward its target size of USD122 million.
The company said that with its new Partech Africa fund, it plans to target early-stage growth startups with an average ticket size between USD 600K and USD 6 million per investment, backing teams that are using tech to “address large emerging market opportunities”.
With over $1 billion of assets under management across seven funds, Partech Ventures has made over 300 investments till date and have had more than 70 full exits. With the launch of this latest fund, Partech has also become one of the biggest international funds (in terms of size) that’s aimed specifically at Africa. Headquartered in Dakar, Senegal, the sector agnostic fund will be headed up by two new general partners, Cyril Collon and Tidjane Dème.
“With a very hands-on operational team closing more than 70 transactions per year, Partech will bring great value to African founders,” said Tidjane Dème, general partner for Partech Africa. “Moreover, thanks to our global network of corporate partners, our dedicated business development team will expose African startups to European and US markets, enable commercial contracts and long-term strategic partnerships”.
The launch of Partech Africa is supported by major financial institutions led by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, and including the European Investment Bank (EIB) and Averroès Finance III. Partech Africa is also backed by corporate investors such as mobile operator Orange and leading emerging markets players such as Edenred and JCDecaux.
As per WeeTracker’s Latest Report, African startups raised over USD 167.7 million and saw an uptick of 28% in Venture Capital in 2017 as compared to 2016. The year also witnessed the launch of several new foreign Funds of the likes of 500 startups, Omdiyar Network, StartupBootCamp amongst others. All this activity signals the much anticipated and important shift that Africa is no longer an inhospitable place for tech investing; it has now emerged as a viable market that is rewriting the rules of entrepreneurship by enabling these veteran investors to nurture a truly global ecosystem.
Image Source: Partech Ventures Twitter
