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Partech Ventures has launched Partech Africa fund, which has secured above €57M (US$70M) commitments toward its target size of €100M ($120M), making it the first technology fund of such size from a top tier international VC to be exclusively dedicated to the fast-growing tech ecosystem in Africa.
Partech Africa intends to focus on early stage growth funding, providing €0.5 to €5M initial tickets to talented African teams in Fintech, InsurTech, new distribution models, ecommerce, entertainment, education, digital services as well as mobility, supply chain services and digitization of the informal economy.
“Tech VC investment in Africa, with ticket sizes from 200K to $40M, has grown almost 10x from $40M in 2012 to $367M in 2016, and is already growing faster than projected $1B annually by 2020” explains Cyril Collon, General Partner of Partech Africa. “Most investment rounds so far have been led by US or EU based investors. The ecosystem is ready for local players, with African teams being able to finance the best African startups”.
The launch of Partech Africa is supported by major financial institutions led by IFC, member of the World Bank Group, and including the European Investment Bank (EIB) and Averroès Finance III (fund of funds managed by Bpifrance and co-sponsored with Proparco).
“With a very hands-on operational team closing more than 70 transactions per year, Partech will bring great value to African founders”, adds 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”.
According to Philippe Le Houérou, Chief Executive Officer of IFC, “Africa’s population is overwhelmingly young—it has lots of people with strong tech skills and innovative ideas that could improve lives. But they lack the necessary funding. We think the Partech Africa fund will make an important contribution to closing this funding gap and driving entrepreneurship and growth.”
