Silicon Valley venture capital (VC) firm Partech Ventures has introduced the Partech Africa fund and has secured over EUR57 million commitments so far, aiming to raise a total of EUR100 million.
Partech Ventures was founded in 1982 in Silicon Valley currently manages EUR850 million across three separate funds, each dedicated to different stages of investment: seed, start-up and growth.
Partech Africa says it intends to focus on early stage growth funding, providing deals ranging from EUR500 000 million to EUR5 million to talented African teams using tech to address large emerging market opportunities.
The company says the tech fund will target industries ranging from financial inclusion to online and mobile consumer services, as well as mobility, supply-chain services and digitisation of the informal economy.
According to Cyril Collon, general partner for Partech Africa, most investment rounds so far have been led by US or EU-based investors. The ecosystem is ready for local players, with African teams being able to finance the best African start-ups, he adds.
"Tech VC investment in Africa, with ticket sizes from 200K to $40 million, has grown almost 10 times from $40 million in 2012 to $367 million in 2016, and is already growing faster than projected $1 billion annually by 2020."
Tidjane D`eme, another general partner for Partech Africa, believes Partech Africa will benefit from the firm's collective industry expertise and unique portfolio support and business development capability.
Partech Africa is supported by major financial institutions led by International Finance (IFC) Corporation, member of the World Bank Group, the European Investment Bank and Averro`es Finance III.
It is also backed by corporate investors led by global mobile player Orange and as well as emerging markets players Edenred and JCDecaux Holding.
"Technology can have a huge transformative impact in Sub-Saharan Africa, which has a vast untapped source of entrepreneurial energy," says Philippe Le Hou'erou, chief executive officer of IFC.
"Africa's population is overwhelmingly young - it has lots of people with strong tech skills and innovative ideas that could improve lives. But they lack the necessary funding. We think the Partech Africa fund will make an important contribution to closing this funding gap and driving entrepreneurship and growth."
The African headquarters will be based in Dakar.
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