Nigerian billionaire, Aliko Dangote, and the founders of Carlye Group, have launched the Alterra Capital Partners fund, which aims to raise up to $500 million,
While larger private equity firms have scaled back their investments in Africa, smaller firms like Alterra are capitalizing on the growing number of start-ups in sectors such as telecommunications, technology, logistics, healthcare, consumer, and retail.
Genevieve Sangudi, who is a partner at Alterra Capital Partners, stated in an interview that now is a great time to invest in Africa due to the favorable macro themes. She noted that the new Africa-focused fund, has already secured $140 million in its first closing.
Sangudi also highlighted the potential investment opportunities in private distributed power solutions, which would address the power challenges across the continent, as well as the rapid digital transformation driven by technology.
Other investors in Alterra’s fund include Standard Bank Group, International Finance Corp, Norfund, Deutsche Investitions- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft, and Allianz’s AfricaGrow fund. Carlyle, based in Washington, spun off its $700-million sub-Saharan African fund to its local investment team during the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic in mid-2020.
The newly formed firm, Alterra, took over the management of Carlyle’s assets in 2020 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
