How Savannah Fund is connecting African startups to Silicon Valley

http://www.smesouthafrica.co.za/startups/connecting-african-startups-to-silicon-valley/

"Local tech startups just received another boost with American Venture Capital Savannah Fund‘s arrival on South African shores. The seed capital firm made its first move into South Africa by buying into two Cape Town-based startups...."

MBO Capital Management

"Our Business

MBO Capital is a private equity firm that invests in small to medium-sized companies across a chosen range of industry sectors. Our firm provides early stage and expansion capital to companies that want to accelerate growth and build exceptional shareholder value in partnership with an experienced and knowledgeable investor.

At MBO Capital, we believe that private equity investment is the most viable source of not only the much needed financial capital for small to medium-sized companies, but also the human resource and value add expertise to strengthen management capacity. By providing early stage and expansion capital to these companies, we enable them to accelerate growth and build exceptional value. We also leverage on our local experience to provide strategic and management support to these companies, enhancing their post-investment value and earning superior returns for our investors.

MBO Capital's uniqueness in this regard is in the expertise of its team whose knowledge of the local business environment and extensive network of contacts both within Nigeria and other Anglophone West African countries is enviable.

We also take great pride in our management professionalism and integrity.

Our Focus

Our goal is to assist all our clients to build sustainable businesses through our investment of both financial and intellectual capital. We are committed to supporting entrepreneurs across Anglophone West Africa who own businesses that are both viable and have a proven track record. Over the next 10 years we plan to invest over US$250m in unlisted small to medium sized companies operating across a number of sectors with our prime focus sectors being Energy, FMCG, Technology and Financial Services sectors...."

https://www.mbocapital.com/about-mbo/ 

Lundin Foundation

"The Lundin Foundation is a philanthropic organization founded originally by the Lundin Family. The Foundation is currently supported by a number of publicly traded natural resource companies committed to the highest standards of corporate social responsibility. The Foundation provides risk capital, technical assistance, and strategic grants to outstanding social enterprises and organizations across the globe, with a view to contributing to sustained improvements in social and economic development.

The Lundin Foundation embodies the entrepreneurial spirit of the Lundin family. The Foundation provides risk capital in the form of investments into high potential small- and medium-sized businesses, with a view to generating wealth and employment needed to alleviate poverty on a sustained basis. It also provides strategic grants to early stage innovations and for technical and managerial assistance.

Through its partnerships with leading resources companies, the Foundation advises on internal policies and management systems, adoption of, and compliance with, international performance and disclosure standards, Stakeholder Mapping and engagement and community investment strategy and oversight...."

http://www.lundinfoundation.org/s/about_us.asp 

Alitheia

"Alitheia invests in companies that are leveraging innovative business models to address the needs of the working class in a sustainable manner. In general, we look for early to growth stage companies operating in Nigeria or other West African countries, backed by strong management teams, with high growth potential. Our target investment sectors include financial services, clean energy and housing...."

 http://www.thealitheia.com/

Africa Finance Corporation (AFC)

"AFC’s mission is to help address Africa’s infrastructure development needs while seeking a competitive return on capital for its shareholders. Since it began operations in 2007, AFC has created the building blocks with which to achieve this objective.

Our Vision: To be the leading African institution in infrastructure financing on the continent

Our Mission: To foster economic growth and industrial development of African countries, while delivering a competitive return on investment to our shareholders

 

 http://www.africafc.org/

Horizon Equity

"We invest amounts from R10m to R100m into privately held South African companies at most stages of the development cycle, from early stage through to pre-listing, including management buy-outs. We are also able to organise and lead syndications with other venture capital firms for larger investments.

Our approach is business-centric, not transaction-centric. We believe that company value is built primarily through business growth and we will only invest in those businesses where we are confident of being able to add real value and to help achieve this.

We seek long-term partnerships with the companies in which we invest, sharing the same risks and rewards as other shareholders for time frames of several years or more.

In general, Horizon Equity Partners invests as a minority shareholder and will take majority positions only in special cases. We view each investment as a partnership with management, and will require executive management to own a significant shareholding.

Personal chemistry is another important part of our philosophy. In general, the same personnel that initiate an investment by Horizon Equity Partners will be responsible for that investment throughout its life. This encourages strong, stable relationships, built on trust and mutual respect, to be developed with a company’s management team...."

 http://www.horizonequity.co.za/HOME/tabid/8351/Default.aspx

TriVest

TriVest is a leading provider of equity for growth capital financings, middle market corporate acquisitions and recapitalizations. Since its founding, TriVest has experienced a huge demand for capital in the early stage sector in Southern Africa, where innovative early-stage and start-up companies often lack the financial, managerial and network resources for expansion and growth.

TriVest prefers to invest in quality small to medium sized companies, which possess or promise strong and defendable market positions in growing or fragmented industries. TriVest always co-invests with company management and pursues transactions which are supported by the management and Boards of Directors of the investee companies.

We also aim to become the preferred sponsor of small to middle market acquisitions. Our mission is to build a track-record of proven closing capabilities and the ability to successfully grow acquired businesses in concert with management.

TriVest pursues investment opportunities which are based in South Africa, but with the potential to achieve scale through expansion within Africa.

TriVest is a member of the South African Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (SAVCA) and upholds the industry’s good practice and valuation principles.

TriVest prefers to invest in the following industries: Healthcare (including Biotechnology) Renewable Energies Security We select businesses whose market position is strong and can be protected from new or unexpected competition. The firm has particular interest in acquiring companies in fragmented industries. Successful acquisition and growth financing candidates usually possess the following characteristics: Talented and committed management team Strong and defendable market positions Scalability A product line with extended life cycles and low obsolescence risk Sustainable and above average operating profit margins (>25% in Retail and Manufacturing, >50% in Services)..." http://www.trivest.co.za/AboutUs/Introduction.aspx

InfraCo Africa

"Catalysing private sector investment by developing infrastructure projects in sub-Saharan Africa to stimulate economic development

InfraCo Africa is a multi-government funded, privately managed company providing early stage development capital and expertise to develop infrastructure projects in sub-Saharan Africa. It acts as an ‘honest broker’ seeking to create viable infrastructure investment opportunities that balance the interests of host governments, the national and international private sector and providers of finance.

Sectors

Energy & Power

InfraCo Africa seeks to develop power generation, transmission and distribution projects, including rural electrification. Projects will be environmentally responsible and economically feasible, for example, gas-fired and other forms of renewable energy supplies.

Water & Sanitation

InfraCo Africa seeks to develop water and waste services in the areas of urban/rural fresh water production and treatment, supply and distribution, sanitation, solid waste disposal/collection and waste treatment plants, as well as  bulk water supply.

Transportation

InfraCo Africa will provide transport infrastructure services through the active development of fixed and moveable transport infrastructure and services including roads, bridges, tunnels, rails systems and services, airports, bus lines, ports and harbours

Other infrastructure

In addition to power, water and transport, InfraCo Africa may consider investment in the following sectors:

• Bulk Storage/Logistics Facilities
• Telecommunications
• Gas transportation, distribution and storage
• Oil transportation, distribution, storage (excluding export projects)
• Mining: but only where investment expands the provision of infrastructure and associated services and where the owner agrees to allow third party use of the assets.
• Urban infrastructure: the provision of economic and social infrastructure within towns and cities (including low cost housing).
• Agriculture-supporting infrastructure: including storage, basic processing facilities and irrigation services.
• Other: other activities that impact positively on the development of a country’s basic infrastructure and promote the objectives of InfraCo Africa . Such activities may include the infrastructure component of industrial, agro-tourism or agro-industrial projects.

Regional Trade Corridors

InfraCo Africa is seeking to invest in several projects that promote Regional Trade Corridors (RTC) in any of the sectors listed above. An RTC project is defined as the following:

Regional Trade Corridors link centres of economic activity in one or more adjoining countries, connect countries separated by one or more transit countries, or provide access to the sea for landlocked countries.

The relevant project must be a trans-border infrastructure project or a national project with a demonstrable regional impact on two or more countries, as evidenced by the value of the project’s cross border share of goods and services, demonstrated by the amount of increased cross border financial flows.

• Eligible sectors for projects are transport (rail, road, air, maritime and inland waterways, ports/terminals), energy, water, trade infrastructure and Information Technology – though it is anticipated that the majority of funding will be in the first two categories.
• Innovative projects with a clear replication potential will be considered (eg. linking to natural resource corridors or to growth poles)
• InfraCo will only look at pursuing projects that address its overall PIDG logframe targets, which were defined in the ARD proposal (eg one logframe target relates to the amount of private sector investment mobilised measured by the PSI ratio:>1:15 InfraCo Africa (RTC):Private Sector Investment), while others relate to geography and number of deals sold to the private sector. Further information on the InfraCo logframe and proposed RTC metrics are shown in the Annex 1.
• For the avoidance of doubt, infrastructure projects with purely national impact are not eligible...."

http://www.infracoafrica.com/ 

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Capitalworks

"Capitalworks is an independent alternative asset management firm based in South Africa providing investment access and specialist solutions to its clients across a wide range of industries and investment themes in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Capitalworks manages more than US$515m for a diverse range of domestic and international investors..."

http://www.capitalworksip.com/index_web.html