Private equity and venture capital fundraising in 2014 increased year-over-year in Sub-Saharan Africa, according to EMPEA, the global industry association for private capital in emerging markets.

The fund managers raised $4bn for the region, the highest recorded since EMPEA began tracking fundraising statistics in 2006, and nearly double the previous record of $2.6bn raised in 2006.

Maryam Haque, Senior Director, Research, EMPEA, said: “LPs have been eyeing Sub-Saharan Africa for a few years now, and in 2014, their interest came to fruition with a record-breaking year of private equity fundraising for the region.”

Haque said that a number of funds are still fundraising for Sub-Saharan Africa, and 2015 shows no signs of slowing down, with 16 of the 24 funds to reach a close in 2014 still in the market to reach a final close.

“The diversity of GPs, including large global players, established domestic players and smaller fund managers, raising capital in 2014 suggests that 2015 should be an active year across the PE spectrum as these GPs will look to deploy capital across the region,” she told Africa Global Funds.

The largest fund raised for SSA was Helios III with over $1bn commitments from sovereign wealth funds, corporate and public pension funds, endowments and foundations, funds of funds, family offices and development finance institutions across the US, Europe, Asia and Africa.

According to EMPEA, while Helios made headlines, the majority of SSA-focused funds remain small.

Despite a few larger funds making headlines this year, 63% of funds that reached a final close in 2014 raised less than $100m, up from 60% in 2013 (Helios had not closed as of 31 December 2014).

Overall, 24 funds reached a close in 2014, more than in any other year since EMPEA began tracking fundraising statistics.

Of these 24 funds that reached a close in 2014, only four had raised more than $250m to date, whereas the median fund size for all SSA funds reaching a final close was $85m in 2014.

While the VC industry is still nascent in the region, venture capital accounted for 6% of capital deployed by fund managers in 2014, primarily the result of Tiger Global’s $100m investment in South Africa-based e-commerce retailer Takealot.

When asked why institutional investors, should consider private equity or venture capital for their emerging markets portfolio, as opposed to public markets, Robert van Zwieten, President and CEO of EMPEA, said that the answer is much more effective access to the middle class growth story.

“Many of the consumer-facing companies in these markets are not listed on the stock exchanges. Private equity fund managers are identifying and investing in the most promising businesses serving the growing emerging market middle class and the same opportunity to tap into this growth story is simply not available through public markets,” he said.