The I&P Afrique Entrepreneurs 2 (IPAE 2) fund, managed by Investisseurs & Partenaires, an impact investment group dedicated to small and medium-sized enterprises in Sub-Saharan Africa, has added two new companies to its portfolio.

Fully in line with the fund’s mandate, these new investments will strengthen I&P’s footprint in Anglophone Africa and allow a first entry into Nigeria, monitored from I&P’s office in Ghana.

IPAE 2 aims to support more than 30 companies in Sub-Saharan Africa by 2022.

The fund has recently reached its final size - €92m ($102m) – with a third and final roundtable including prestigious investors: the African Development Bank, Japan International Cooperation Agency and the fund France 2i, entrusted by the Fondation de France and managed by RAISE Impact.

IPAE 2 is a generalist fund that targets a large range of sectors that significantly contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): agri-business, health, construction industry, renewable energy, microfinance, industry, B2B products and services, etc.

The new investments are fully in line with IPAE 2's mandate and investment strategy.

They highlight sectoral and geographical diversity and have a strong impact potential in their local economies:

New Crystal is a healthcare company based in Ghana, which provides affordable and reliable health care services to the urban poor.

New Crystal serves over 250,000 clients a year and has emerged as a national leader in this sector.

Rensource is a distributed energy services company in Nigeria that delivers power to SME merchants in market clusters through ring-fenced, solar powered micro-utilities.

Rensource is Nigeria’s fastest growing provider of off-grid power.

Although I&P is mostly active in Francophone Africa, the group has progressively developed its activities in anglophone Africa. The current I&P portfolio includes several investments in Anglophone countries (AMI in Kenya, Finance Trust Bank in Uganda, PEG Africa, Eden Tree and VRS Africa in Ghana).

In 2016, I&P opened an office in Accra headed by Baafour Otu-Boateng.

The local investment team was reinforced in 2018 with the recruitment of Francis Owusu.

Rensource is I&P’s first investment in Nigeria.

Using the provision of solar-based micro-utilities as an entry point, Rensource develops and manages critical infrastructure that powers the productivity of SMEs.

Investing in Rensource, alongside co- investors such as CRE Ventures, Omidyar Network, PROPARCO, Inspired Evolution and EDP, serves as a unique platform for I&P to enter Africa’s largest market.

“We are excited to partner with the promoters behind New Crystal and Rensource, two pioneering enterprises that are aligned with the impact ethos of I&P,” said Baafour Otu-Boateng, Senior Investment Manager at I&P.

“Our Ghana office has natural access to a robust deal pipeline from Nigeria, and we look forward to learning from and deploying our partnership model to support the SMEs in Nigeria that are vital to the country’s long-term economic growth.”