InfraMed, a €385m long-term investment vehicle dedicated to infrastructure, has agreed to acquire a 21% stake in ‘Broadband for Africa’, the venture set up by Eutelsat Communications to provide satellite broadband services on the African continent.

By investing in ‘Broadband for Africa’, InfraMed is pursuing its strategy to focus on opportunities in regions characterized by dynamic demographics and infrastructure insufficiency.

Set up by Eutelsat in 2015, ‘Broadband for Africa’ will deploy affordable, high-quality broadband connectivity in Africa using, in the first phase, leased Ka-band capacity on Spacecom’s AMOS-6 satellite, and in the second phase, resources on its own dedicated High Throughput Satellite that will be launched in 2019.

‘Broadband for Africa’ will develop direct-to-user consumer and enterprise broadband services and address the market for community networks connected to Wi-Fi hotspots, mobile phone backhauling and rural connectivity.

Laurent Grimaldi, CEO of ‘Broadband for Africa’, said: “In leveraging state-of-the-art satellite technologies, ‘Broadband for Africa’ will offer telcos, Internet service providers and government agencies a quality solution that enables more Africans to get online.”

“We welcome InfraMed as a shareholder and look forward to benefiting from its track record of successful infrastructure investments,” he said.

InfraMed was jointly created in 2010 by five major investors: Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, Caisse des Deìpôts et de Consignations, the European Investment Bank, Caisse de Deìpôts et de Gestion, and EFG Hermes.

InfraMed seeks investments in a wide range of sectors keeping a maximum flexibility with a capped percentage of 65% of its total size for any single infrastructure sector.

The countries within InfraMed’s geographic focus are increasingly looking to the private sector, and the implementation of privatization and public/private partnership for the delivery of such needed infrastructure and corresponding services.