AfricInvest, a Tunisian private equity firm, has teamed up with Cathay Innovation, the venture capital fund set up by France-based Cathay Capital, to launch a venture capital fund targeting African startups.
The Cathay AfricInvest Innovation Fund has a projected size of $170 million which would rank it among the largest VC funds in Africa.
AfricInvest senior partner Khaled Ben Jilani said that the fund will look to invest up to $10 million over multiple funding rounds in both African startups and non-African startups that are looking to expand to the region.
He also said that the fund’s first close should come within the next 18 months and be in the range of $50-60 million.
While the fund is sector agnostic, it is focusing on the fintech, logistics, software, healthtech and education sectors.
AfricInvest states that the fund will help to create high-tech jobs in Africa and also make products and services more accessible to millions of Africans. “It will have a significant impact on the continent in terms of the development of skills and know-how, value creation and economic, financial and social inclusion with strong ambitions in terms of return on investment,” it stated.
“Our combined objective is to provide support to a new generation of African companies in cutting-edge fields, with the ambition to grow them regionally and globally,” said Aziz Mebarek, co-founder of AfricInvest.
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