The Ethos-led consortium, comprising Ethos Fund VI, Hamilton Lane and HarbourVest, has contributed $150m into the $350m of new equity raised by Eaton Towers from new and existing shareholders.

Eaton Towers is an independent provider of shared telecoms towers across Africa.

Existing shareholders Capital Group Private Markets, Development Partners International (DPI) and management are joined by the Ethos Consortium and Standard Chartered Private Equity.

Terry Rhodes, CEO of Eaton Towers, said: “We are very pleased that our existing and new shareholders back the strategy and vision to create a market-leading independent pan-African tower company.”

This is the fourth transaction announced by Ethos in just five months following investments into AutoZone and (former Nampak divisions) Neopak and TwinCare.

Ngalaah Chuphi, Ethos partner, said: “This is an exciting transaction for Ethos; it is our first pan-African deal in Fund VI plus we’ve been able to partner some Fund VI investors - Hamilton Lane and HarbourVest - in our consortium.”

“Together, we are committed to Eaton’s growth agenda to become the most geographically diversified tower company on the African continent with presence in very exciting markets from a growth perspective,” he said.

“This investment is another important step to bridge the African digital divide. The successful roll out of world-class mobile services is transformational for Africa. Investments of this type form the backbone of Africa’s renaissance,” he added.

Founded in 2008 by Sanjiv Ahuja (ex CEO Orange), Alan Harper (ex Vodafone UK MD) and Terry Rhodes (ex Celtel co-founder), Eaton Towers acquires, builds and manages shared telecom infrastructure, leasing it to mobile operators.

The company is focused exclusively on Africa with more than 5000 towers in seven countries.

This fresh round of growth capital facilitates Eaton’s acquisition of multiple cellular towers across Africa.

Eaton Towers has just closed a new investment in Ghana, giving the company two major anchor tenants in Airtel and Vodafone and the necessary scale to compete successfully.

The company also signed the first tower ownership partnership in Egypt, the second largest mobile market in Africa.

“This is the first close of the six-country portfolio (Ghana, Uganda, Kenya, Burkina Faso, Niger and Malawi) purchase signed with Bharti Airtel is September 2014. Once the deals are completed, Eaton Towers will be operational in eight countries,” said Rhodes.