Apis Partners, a London-based investment fund has closed its Apis Growth Fund II at a hard-cap of US$550 million with total commitments of
$563 million exceeding the initial target fund size of $400
million.
Apis Partners raised the funding from global banks, insurance companies,
development financial institutions, fund of funds, pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, and family offices around the world.
Apis Growth Fund II expects to make equity investments of between US$30 million and US$50 million into financial services with a focus on capital light financial services and financial technology companies across the growth markets of Africa, South Asia and South East Asia.
Apis Growth Fund II will build on the successful financial services strategy and track record of Apis Partners’ predecessor fund, Apis Growth Fund I which closed in 2016 with US$287 million of total commitments, and will seek to partner with founders and management teams to invest in growth
stage companies in the financial services sector.
Apis Growth Fund II will invest in selected financial services and related business services, namely in the sub-verticals of Payments, Credit and Savings, Insurance, Technology Enablers and Service Providers, and Capital Markets. The Fund will back companies with innovative business models
adapted to local conditions and addressing a large portion of the unbanked or underbanked populations.
Apis Growth Fund II has already invested in two companies: Tutuka, one of the leading global emerging markets independent issuer processors in Africa and India’s Coda Payments.
“We are grateful for the continued support of our existing investors and are excited to welcome our new investors to Fund II. This commitment brings with it the responsibility for us to continue to focus on our investment activity and execute in our core areas of expertise” said Matteo Stefanel, Managing Partner and Apis Co-Founder.
“We see this successful fundraising process as a clear endorsement by our investors of our deep financial services expertise, and recognition of the strong potential in growth markets financial services. This new fund will pursue our established strategy of investing in one of the most important sectors, globally and in growth markets, namely financial services.” said Udayan Goyal, Managing Partner and Apis Co-Founder.
The closing of Apis Growth Fund II follows an active and successful year for Apis, during which the Firm completed 5 investments and a number of add-on acquisitions into portfolio companies. Apis Partners has completed 14 investments to date in financial services across multiple sub-sectors.
In Africa, Apis Partners has invested in Direct Pay Online (DPO) Group, Q LINK, Crossfin Transactional Solutions (CTS), Efficient Group
Efficient Group (EFG), Tutuka, Greenlight Planet, Baobab and Transfast.
