CardinalStone Capital Advisers (CCA), a Lagos based private equity fund manager, has announced the final close of its maiden private equity fund, the CardinalStone Capital Advisers Growth Fund (CCAGF) at $64m.

The Fund which had its first close in December 2018 and final close in September 2020, was established to support the growth and institutionalization of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) operating in two of West Africa’s leading economies—Nigeria and Ghana.

The CCAGF is a generalist fund that makes equity investments of between $5m and $10m in high growth SMEs operating across a range of sectors which include industrials, agribusiness, consumer goods and services, education, healthcare and financial services.

CCAGF investors, which are a mix of commercial and development finance institutions include Kuramo Capital, the UK Government’s CDC Group, FMO – the  Dutch Entrepreneurial Development Bank, the International Finance Corporation, the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) and a number of high-net-worth individuals.

Femi Ogunjimi, Co-Founder and Managing Director of CCA, said: “We are pleased with the successful close of our Fund in the prevailing challenging environment. We are very grateful to all of our limited partners for the resounding support shown through the process; their support is an endorsement of our hands-on approach to building SMEs into sector champions.”

The Fund has invested in two businesses - iFitness Center, a Nigerian fitness chain, and AppZone Group, a fintech solutions provider in Africa, and will invest in another six-seven companies over the next two years. 

Yomi Jemibewon, Co-Founder and Managing Director of CCA said: “We are excited about our investments in both iFitness and AppZone. The founders of both businesses have ambitions to disrupt and consolidate key segments of their respective industries and have done an amazing job establishing solid foundations that complement CCA’s brand of bold, yet collaborative, investing.” 

“We look forward to partnering with more like-minded founder/promoter teams towards building businesses with transformational impact across our target markets.”

Solomon Wifa, Partner at Willkie Farr (UK) acted as legal adviser, while Trident Trust (Mauritius) will provide administrative services to CCAGF.