A Côte d’Ivoire based GP has touched first close on its Sub-Saharan Africa-focused early-stage vehicle.
Janngo Capital has brought in approximately $36 million (€34 million) for the first close of Janngo Capital Startup Fund (JCSF), which is targeting €60 million at final close.
The vehicle was originally marketed at €50million, and was resized to €60million.
Anchor investors on the fund include the European Investment Bank (EIB) with €565 billion in assets under management as of 2021. EIB committed €10 million to JCSF earlier in 2022.
African Development Bank (AfDB), is also an anchor Investor on the fund, having committed €10.5 million to the vehicle in 2021.
Boost Africa, a joint venture between EIB and AfDB is also an LP in JCSF.
France-based Proparco also commited an undisclosed amount to the fund. The investor structured the commitment through Fonds d’Investissement et de Soutien aux Entreprises en Afrique (FISEA+), an approximately $293 million (€250 million) platform which it manages on behalf of the French government.
Burda Principal Investments (BPI), an investment arm of Hubert Burda Media, a Germany-based media company also commited an disclosed amount to the fund.
Muller Medien, a German-based family-owned media company is also an LP in JCSF.
An undisclosed ex-KKR partner has also commited an undisclosed amount to the fund.
“Our current portfolio companies are 56% women-led, 54% francophone and provide strong evidence of how these technology champions can positively contribute in solving key market failures and creating jobs in healthcare, logistics, financial services, retail, food & agri, mobility or the creative industry,’’ said Fatoumata Bâ, founder and executive chair at Janngo. ‘’Janngo Capital Startup Fund will play a critical role in improving access to early-stage capital for tech entrepreneurs in a more equal way, on a continent still attracting less than 2% of the global VC fund.’’
Jérémie Ceyrac, head of private equity at Proparco represented the investor.
Stefan Nalletamby, director for financial sector development represented AfDB.
Ambroise Fayolle, vice president at EIB represented the investor.
JCSF will primarily target early-stage technology companies operating in the financial services space, across West Africa.
The investor will look to allocate 50% of the fund’s capital to women-owned companies.
Deal sizes will range between €0.5 million and €5 million per transaction.
Janngo Capital Startup Fund has been structured as a closed-end LP-GP venture capital fund.
Janngo Capital is the venture capital arm of Janngo, a technology company based in Côte d’Ivoire that backs pan-African early-stage companies. The company is backed by France-based family office Mulliez Family.
Soeximex, a business services company, and Clipperton, an investment bank – both based in France are also investors in Janngo. The trio participated in a $1 million seed investment round into the company in 2018.
Janngo is headed by founder and chief executive officer Fatoumata Bâ. Prior to Janngo, Bâ was managing director at Jumia, a Nigeria-based consumer technology company