The Johannesburg-based Convergence Partners, a private equity investor focused on the technology sector across sub-Saharan Africa, has announced the successful first close of its third fund, the Convergence Partners Digital Infrastructure Fund (CPDIF), at US$120 million.
Founded in 2006, Convergence Partners invests as value-adding partners into private equity and infrastructure opportunities in technology and digital sectors across sub-Saharan Africa. It has an asset base in excess of US$400 million which it deploys across Southern, East and West Africa through three funds, including the recently-launched Convergence Partners Digital Infrastructure Fund.
The fund has announced a first close of US$120 million, and is targeting a final size of US$250 million. Investors are leading institutions that continue to support African growth such as the UK’s CDC Group, the United States International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), the European Investment Bank (EIB), the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Proparco, the private sector arm of the Agence Française de Développement – AFD Group.
Investments by the new fund will be driven by the infrastructure needs of the emerging growth themes in the digital infrastructure ecosystem, specifically fibre, wireless, data centres, and towers, as well as 5G, cloud, Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), fintech and network virtualisation. Its first investment is in Ctrack, a data analytics business servicing the fleet management and insurance industries, with this transaction announced earlier in the year.
“We are delighted to have achieved this milestone particularly given the headwinds in African PE fundraising generally, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on business activity, over the past 12 months. We are very pleased with the level of support from both repeat and new investors and believe this reflects our solid track record and the opportunity CPDIF presents at this crucial time in both a tech and African context,” said Brandon Doyle chief executive officer (CEO) of Convergence Partners.
