French fund launched to invest in African startups

AfricInvest and Bpifrance have partnered to launch the French African Fund (FFA), a cross-border investment fund dedicated to the development of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Africa and France.

A pool of diverse investors have subscribed to the fund, which will be managed by AfricInvest, with the aim of accelerating the growth of African and French SMEs through development projects across the two continents.

These investors include Bpifrance and French private sector groups Société Générale and Orange, and Proparco. More than 25 per cent of the fund’s subscription comes from African investors, including the Caisse Nationale de Prévoyance Sociale de Côte d’Ivoire (CNPS), the Moroccan insurance company Saham, and the Central Bank of Kenya Pension Fund.

Its strategy will be to invest in mid-cap companies with significant growth potential, using an entrepreneurial medium- to long-term approach to value creation. AfricInvest will accompany French firms in their strategic development in Africa, and will assist African companies with their expansion into France and the rest of Europe.

“The cornerstone of the strategy for the French African Fund – the first cross border fund between Africa and France – rests in AfricInvest’s ability to help French companies grow in Africa, and at the same time attract African companies to the French market,” said Benjamin Paternot, Bpifrance’s Fund of Funds executive director.

“The quality of AfricInvest’s experience – through its diverse team based in France and across Africa – as the well as the development potential of the African continent, have together attracted the highest quality partners in the private sector both in France and in Africa.”

AfricInvest founding partner Aziz Mebarek said his company was looking forward to supporting the ambitions of the FFA, while providing French and African entrepreneurs with the necessary support to push their respective projects beyond the boundaries of their countries and continents.

Source Disrupt Africa