BLOC Smart Africa, a blended finance technology impact fund with a fundraising target of $100 million created and managed by Bamboo Capital Partners and Smart Africa.
BLOC Smart Africa has launched to invest in businesses using scalable technology-led solutions that create growth opportunities for underserved communities in Africa.
BLOC Smart Africa, is a flagship program of the Smart Africa Alliance and has been sponsored by the Governments of Luxembourg and Cote d’Ivoire.
The Governments of Luxembourg and Côte d’Ivoire will invest a total of €10 million into the BLOC Smart Africa Fund.
According to Jean-Philippe De Schrevel, Founder and Managing Partner at Bamboo Capital Partners: “We are pleased to welcome the Governments of Luxembourg and Côte d’Ivoire as the first sponsors of BLOC Smart Africa. Their sponsorship will play a crucial role in de-risking the senior tranches of the Fund and attracting institutional investors to this unique investment opportunity.
BLOC Smart Africa is part of SDG500, the $500 million public-private blended finance impact investing platform dedicated to helping achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.
The investments from the Government of Luxembourg and Côte d’Ivoire will sponsor the first loss tranche of BLOC Smart Africa. The first loss tranche protects senior tranches of funding designed for institutional investors and provides them with a market-based risk-adjusted return that fulfils their fiduciary requirements.
Technology plays a crucial and unparalleled role in scaling impact exponentially on the ground in Africa. BLOC Smart Africa will take this a step further and invest in businesses that use new, scalable technologies to create growth opportunities for underserved communities. BLOC Smart Africa is expected to make a significant contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals and is open to institutional investors to join.
Lacina Koné, Director General at Smart Africa commented: “We have a critical funding gap across Africa. The BLOC Smart Africa fund will go a long way in bridging the financing gap between seed and growth stage for hundreds of businesses and in particular Startups in Africa, emerging and frontier markets and is the first-of-its-kind dedicated to helping achieve the SDGs. We will identify high-growth potential Startups to invest in and scale up across the continent. The partnership with the governments of Cote d’Ivoire and Luxembourg go a long way towards transforming Africa into a single digital market.”