Côte d’Ivoire and Luxembourg have subscribed to Bloc Smart Africa, an investment fund that supports the financing of high-potential start-ups, beyond their creation phase.
The investment capital Bamboo Capital launched Bloc Smart Africa. This “impact fund”, with a target size of $100 million, is exclusively dedicated to African technology companies.
This vehicle has already attracted two subscribers, namely the governments of Côte d’Ivoire and Luxembourg, who have jointly committed 10 million euros. It will target start-ups with high growth potential who use scalable technological solutions to create growth opportunities among populations of emerging countries.
“We are pleased to welcome the governments of Luxembourg and Côte d’Ivoire as the first sponsors of Bloc Smart Africa”, comments Jean-Philippe de Schrevel, founder of Bamboo Capital Partners.
“Technology is playing a crucial and unprecedented role in scaling impact, exponentially, on the ground in Africa,” he continues. His private equity firm has witnessed “firsthand” the growth of mobile banking on the continent over the past decade.
“Bloc Smart Africa is going one step further and will invest in companies that use new, scalable technologies to create growth opportunities for underserved communities. This vehicle, judges Jean-Philippe de Schrevel, can make a significant contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and we hope that other institutional investors will recognize it and join us”.
Bloc Smart Africa begins its collection as many African companies and start-ups located between the seed and growth phase are encountering many difficulties in continuing their activities due to the funding gap.
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Lacina Koné, Managing Director of Smart Africa, confirms: “We have a critical funding gap in Africa. The Bloc Smart Africa fund intends to remedy this, for its part, in particular in emerging and frontier markets.”
“The fund is the first of its kind to contribute to the achievement of the SDGs,” continues Lacina Koné. Whose company “will identify start-ups with high growth potential in which to invest and evolve across the continent”. In this context, “the partnership with the governments of Côte d’Ivoire and Luxembourg greatly contributes to transforming Africa into a single digital market”.
Bloc Smart Africa is part of SDG 500, the $500 million blended public-private finance impact investment platform dedicated to achieving the SDGs. The investments of the Luxembourg government and the Ivory Coast will sponsor the first tranche of the loss of Bloc Smart Africa. This mechanism protects the senior tranches of financing designed for institutional investors and provides them with a risk-adjusted return.
Founded in 2007, Bamboo Capital Partners is an impact investing platform that provides innovative financing solutions to catalyze sustainable impact. Bamboo “bridges the gap” between start-up and growth financing with a full range of financing options – from debt to equity – which the company activates on its own or through strategic partnerships. Since its inception, Bamboo has raised more than $400 million and invested in around 30 developing countries.
Launched in 2013 by seven African heads of state, Smart Africa is an alliance of 31 African countries, international organizations and global private sector players charged with Africa’s digital agenda.
The alliance is strengthened by a bold and innovative commitment by African heads of state to accelerate sustainable socio-economic development on the continent and to bring Africa into the knowledge economy through affordable broadband access and to the use of ICT.
