December 17, 2021

Private Equity Fund Alitheia Raises $100M To Support ‘Gender-Diverse Businesses’ In Africa

A female-centered private equity fund dubbed Alitheia IDF has raised $100 million to support “gender-diverse businesses” in Africa. The news comes just one year after raising $75 million from investors.

This is a massive achievement as women-only founders have received less than 1% of the nearly $5 billion raised by startups across Africa so far this year.

This time around, involved in the fundraising was the African Development Bank, Bank of Industry Nigeria, FinDev Canada, Dutch Good Growth Fund, and the European Investment Bank. Closing the round, European Investment Bank (EIB) committed $24.6 million.

Alitheia invests in growth-stage companies across Nigeria, South Africa, Ghana, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, and Zambia, representing a small fraction of the 55 countries in Africa.

By investing in women, the fund hopes to unlock the potential of women-led businesses in Africa and, ultimately, the economic transformation of their countries.

They hope to use the funding to combat the present financial gap for women-led businesses in the continent. According to a report, “Female single founders and female-only founding teams have raised less than 1% of the total raised on the continent this year so far.”

“Globally, women have tremendous purchasing power as consumers and controllers of household economics. In the same vein, women entrepreneurs have a significant presence in Africa’s SME sector, with African women making up 58% of the continent’s self-employed population.

“However, despite this economic power and presence, they are underserved as consumers and producers,” said Alitheia’s principal partner in Nigeria, Tokunboh Ishmael, according to TechCrunch.

Article Tags :
Abbianca Makoni

Abbianca Makoni is a content executive and writer at POCIT! She has years of experience reporting on critical issues affecting diverse communities around the globe.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.