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Small Cap Fund

AfricInvest

Small Cap Fund

AfricInvest

The AfricInvest Small Cap Fund is a multiregional, impact-focused fund designed to support African small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with high growth and impact potential. The Fund provides tailored financing solutions ranging from EUR 4 million to 15 million per investment, focusing on influential minority equity positions. By targeting diverse sectors and regions, particularly in areas where AfricInvest has a local presence, the Fund offers financial, managerial, and governance support to drive transformative and measurable outcomes for SMEs across the continent.

Project Details

The AfricInvest Small Cap Fund is designed to unlock the potential of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) across the continent, recognizing the critical role they play in the African economy as pillars of economic growth, innovation and job creation. By scaling these companies, AfricInvest aims to unlock transformative economic, social, and environmental impact and deliver attractive risk-adjusted returns to its investors. To that end, the fund will invest in sectors that are pivotal to Africa’s sustainable development, including agriculture & food, healthcare, education, consumer goods, manufacturing, and services.

AfricInvest Small Cap Fund will be announcing a first closing in Q1 2025 with subscriptions from international institutional investors.

Anticipated Impact

The Fund integrates key impact objectives directly into its architectureby incentivizing the fund manager to encourage its portfolio companies to:

  • Adopt science-based targets and complete climate risk and opportunity assessments.
  • Promote net job growth, align with 2X certification standards for gender equality, and advance inclusive financial practices tailored to the SME context.
  • Integrate climate adaptation and mitigation strategies, enhance equitable living standards, promoting environmental and social resilience.

These impact objectives are reinforced through the introduction of an innovativeremuneration structure which ties financial incentives to the achievement of both financial returns and impact KPIs. This approach embeds accountability and ensures alignment between financial returns and impactful change, reflecting the Fund’s deep commitment to sustainable growth.

By driving meaningful and measurable sustainable change, the Fund aligns directly with the mission of the Alliance for Entrepreneurship in Africa to foster innovation, build resilient businesses, and accelerate inclusive growth. AfricInvest’s decades of expertise enable it to address critical market gaps and deliver impactful solutions that empower African SMEs to become engines of economic and social transformation.

Support/Partnership Required

The Fund has already secured support from Alliance member Proparco (along with other investors), who participated in the first closing in Q1 2025. We invite other Alliance members to consider contributing to this pioneering initiative that aligns with their commitment to sustainable and inclusive development.