Convergence Partners has secured its third fund, the Convergence Partners Digital Infrastructure Fund (CPDIF), at $120 million. The fund is targeting a final size of US$250 million.
The private equity investor, whose focus is on the technology sector across sub-Saharan Africa, is the largest equity investor dedicated to digital infrastructure in Africa, with a capital base of over $400 million.
Speaking on the raise, Brandon Doyle, CEO of Convergence Partners said, "We are delighted to have achieved this milestone, particularly given the headwinds in African PE fundraising generally and the impact of the Covid pandemic on business activity over the past 12 months. We are very pleased with the level of support from both repeat and new investors and believe this reflects our solid track record and the opportunity CPDIF presents at this crucial time in both tech and African context."
Investors in CPDIF are leading institutions that continue to support African growth, such as the CDC Group (the UK's development finance institution), the United States International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), the European Investment Bank (EIB), the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Proparco (the private sector arm of the Agence Française de Développement – AFD Group).
CPDIF investments will be driven by the infrastructure needs of the emerging growth themes in the digital infrastructure ecosystem, specifically fibre, wireless, data centres, towers etc., as well as 5G, Cloud, Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), fintech and network virtualisation.
CPDIF first invested in Ctrack, a transaction that was announced earlier this year. As a data analytics business servicing the fleet management and insurance industries, the business sits at the intersection of AI and IoT, with all its solutions being cloud-delivered. CPDIF is a continuation of Convergence Partners' strategy since its inception in 2006 across its funds under management.
