Spark+ General Partner has announced the second and third closings of Spark+ Africa Fund, with a current AUM of US$64 million.
Spark+ is the first impact debt fund dedicated to growing the clean cooking sector across sub-Saharan Africa.
In the fund’s second closing in July 2022, the European Commission invested in the catalytic tranche via a partnership with IFU, the development finance institution of Denmark and a first closing investor on its own behalf.
In the third closing in September 2023, the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), the development finance institution of the United States, invested in the senior debt tranche.
The four investors in the second and third closings joined 12 development finance institutions, foundations, family offices, and pension funds that invested in the Fund’s first closing at US$41 million in March 2022.
“We are pleased to be working with such prestigious organisations committed to clean cooking in Sub-Saharan Africa. Their commitments in all tranches of the blended structure of Spark+ will be catalytic to accelerate the Fund’s deployment strategy,” said Xavier Pierluca, investment director of Spark+ and managing partner of EQ.
