Investisseurs & Partenaires, has announced the intermediate closing of its fund I&P Afrique Entrepreneurs 2 (IPAE 2), bringing the fund’s investment capacity to €75m. 

I&P Afrique Entrepreneurs 2 was launched in December 2017 with a first closing at €50m.

The second closing amounts to €25m and allows several renowned investors to join the fund, including the Belgian Investment Company for Developing Countries (BIO), the Stichting fondsbeheer DGGF lokaal MKB, Bpifrance, Crédit Coopératif, FPS Mirova Solidaire and the IDA 18 IFC-MIGA Private Sector Window, which was created by the World Bank Group to mobilize private sector investment in IDA-only countries, with a focus on fragile and conflict-affected states.

The IPAE 2 fund brings together a diversified panel of investors, including public investors (such as IFC, PROPARCO, European Investment Bank, BIO, DGGF, Bpifrance), private and corporate investors (such as AXA Impact Fund, Société Générale), as well as several family offices and foundations.

IPAE 2 is on track to reach its target size of €80-90m and will complete a third and final closing by the end of the first half of 2019. 

To date, IPAE 2 has invested in four SMEs and aims to support more than 30 companies in Sub-Saharan Africa by 2022.

The Fund’s investments include: Afribon, specialized in the development, production and marketing of food flavors, the African Management Initiative (AMI), offering professional training to African entrepreneurs and managers, CoinAfrique, the leader in mobile classifieds in French-speaking Africa, and PROCRÉA, an Ivorian clinic specialized in the field of reproductive health.

IPAE 2 is currently one of the largest funds in the impact investing sector dedicated to African SMEs. 

IPAE 2’s investment ticket size can reach up to €3m, allowing I&P to support mature companies and large projects. This category of high-potential SMEs represents a powerful growth driver in Africa, but very few equity or debt investors are willing to finance them.

Besides equity investment, IPAE 2 provides companies with active participation in their governance, personalized managerial support and technical assistance resources, enabling them to reach their full potential in terms of growth and impact.

While SMEs are increasingly identified as key actors for inclusive growth on the continent, they still face many obstacles, including notably access to finance and skills.

I&P has also raised a technical assistance budget of more than €2.9m from several of its public investors, which will complement the team's support through expert missions in the company's fields of activity or in the social, environmental and governance areas.

IPAE 2 aims to invest in equity and quasi-equity in 30 to 40 startups and companies located in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Indian Ocean, pursuing the mission of the group Investisseurs & Partenaires to promote a new generation of African entrepreneurs. 

The investment team dedicated to IPAE comprises about ten members based in Paris and in six African offices (Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Madagascar and Senegal).