Despite a global context strongly affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, the fund I&P Afrique Entrepreneurs 2 (IPAE 2) continues its investment activity and welcomes in its portfolio a new Malagasy company, SOAFIARY, operating in the agro-food sector.
A first investment in Madagascar for IPAE 2
New Crystal Health Services (NCHS) is Ghana’s leading private health care group dedicated to the urban poor. From its modest beginnings in a four-bedroom facility in 2003, New Crystal now serves an average of 300,000 customers per year through a chain of six networked clinics, a diagnostic services company and a pharmaceutical wholesale and retail company. NCHS provides general consulting services in health care, surgery, optics, dental care and other diversified health services.
THE ENTREPRENEUR
Dr. Wisdom Amegbletor is a medical doctor and an entrepreneur. After completing University of Ghana Medical School in 1999, he completed his mandatory housemanship and then decided to work at Greenshield Clinic in Sefwi-Wiawso, a rural town in the Western region of Ghana. During his Greenshield experience, the founder of the clinic entrusted Dr. Wisdom with overall management responsibility, which helped him to later birth the idea of New Crystal in 2003. He holds an MBA from the University of Ghana Business School in Entrepreneurial Management. Dr. Wisdom has been the primary driver of New Crystal’s growth to date.
Watch an interview with the promoter, Dr. Wisdom Amegbletor
PARTNERSHIP WITH I&P
I&P’s investment in New Crystal aims to:
• Upgrade the infrastructure of the New Crystal network of clinics to enable the continued provision of affordable, more quality health care to underserved communities
• Strenghten governance practices and organizational structure to support the sustainability of the business
EXPECTED IMPACT
• Access to affordable and quality health care
• Provision of free health care to all the staff of the clinics
• Financing of certifications and regular training of the staff
• Improved waste management methods
• Possibility of supplying solar energy to clinics
Rensource is a distributed energy services company that delivers power and value-added services to SME clusters in Nigeria through ring-fenced, solar powered micro-utilities. In 2018, the company launched its first micro-utility project with financial backing from Paris-based NEoT Capital through its NEoT Offgrid Africa investment platform. The project is located at the Sabon Gari Market in Kano State and today provides clean, affordable and reliable energy to over 4,000 merchants, with an additional 8,000 set to go live by Q3 2019.
Rensource is Nigeria’s fastest growing provider of off-grid power. Over the next two years, the company seeks to rollout 11 additional micro-utility projects that have already been contracted and partially developed in some cases.
THE ENTREPRENEUR
Ademola “Demmy” Adesina is a Nigerian entrepreneur with over 12 years’ experience across Africa, USA and Europe. He has focused on building or turning around early and growth stage enterprises for much of his career.
Ademola has led business development and corporate strategy for Aquifer, a London based investment company (Sainsbury Family Office). He joined Aquifer from the Rockefeller Foundation in New York, where he was a founding member of the Innovation for Development & Impact Investing initiatives that birthed the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN). Demmy began his career as an investment banker with JP Morgan.
PARTNERSHIP WITH I&P
I&P’s investment in Rensource aims to:
• Support the full deployment of additional micro-utilities to potentially reach over 200,000 end users in Nigeria by 2022
EXPECTED IMPACT
• Significant contribution to solving power crisis in Nigeria
CoinAfrique is a 100% mobile community platform designed to buy and sell products simply.
Created in 2015, CoinAfrique aims to become the leader in online ads between individuals in French-speaking Africa. To date, CoinAfrique has over 500,000 downloads and more than 100,000 active users.
Matthias Papet is the founder and President of CoinAfrique. An expert in new technologies and e-commerce, he managed many sites in the field of mail order, beauty and travel, before working at Google France as Head of Travel.
Eric Genêtre is the Managing Director of CoinAfrique, in charge of the administrative and financial aspects of the company. During his career, he has managed major projects in the fields of construction, real estate and concessions, in France and abroad. In particular, he worked as Managing Director of Vinci Concession's subsidiary in Slovakia.
I&P is committed to working with CoinAfrique to:
The impact investing group Investisseurs & Partenaires, dedicated to small and medium-sized African companies, carried out the intermediate closing of its fund I&P Afrique Entrepreneurs 2 (IPAE 2), reaching a total amount of 75 million euros. To date, IPAE 2 has invested in four SMEs and aims to support more than thirty companies in Sub-Saharan Africa by 2022.
The medical-surgical clinic PROCREA, based in Abidjan, began operating in 2008. It specializes in the field of reproductive health and is the leader in Côte d’Ivoire in Assisted Reproductive Health Care (AMP), a technique that treats people with infertility issues and helps them to achieve parenthood.
PROCRÉA also provides mother-child care, including obstetrical gynecology, neonatology (newborn care), and pediatrics.
The vision of PROCREA's promoters is to popularize the practice of MAP in order to make it accessible to a greater number of people. The clinic aims to become one of the leaders in the sector in Côte d'Ivoire and West Africa, complying with the requirements and standards of the international medical sector. In ten years of activity, the clinic has already accompanied more than 500 couples.
PROCRÉA was created in 2006 under the initiative of Dr. Myriam Kadio-Morokro Brou, principal promoter, and Professor Marie-Laure Hauhouot Attoumgbré, co-promoter, both of whom are recognized experts in Côte d'Ivoire in the fields of biology and reproductive sciences. Later they were joined by 3 other renowned health professionals in Côte d'Ivoire.
After obtaining her bachelor's degree in France, Dr. Kadio-Morokro Brou joined the Faculty of Medicine in Abidjan where she graduated in 2001 and did a thesis on reproductive biology. Passionate about the subject, she then returned to France to complete her studies in reproductive biology, sterility therapy, molecular cytogenetics and male sterility. During her stay in France she worked in several hospitals, hospitals and laboratories.
Back in Côte d'Ivoire in 2005, she suggested to her friend Prof Attoumgbré to join her in the PROCREA clinic project, which they founded in 2006. PROCREA’s activities officially started in 2008.
► To know more, discover the interview of Dr. Kadio-Morokro Brou
I&P committed alongside with PROCRÉA to:
• Restructure the project to focus on the medical offer dedicated to reproduction
• Financing and supporting the construction of a new, larger clinic, better adapted to PROCRÉA's needs and designed in an environmentally friendly way (treatment of medical waste, rainwater recovery, reduction in energy consumption, etc.)
• Support the management team in the running of the clinic
• Make reproductive health care available to the greatest number of people
• Improve the quality of care
• Increase the clinic's capacity
The clinic PROCRÉA, specialized in reproductive health, began its activities in 2008. Based in Abidjan, it is now the leader in Côte d'Ivoire for medically assisted reproduction. PROCREA is the latest investment of the fund I&P Afrique Entrepreneurs 2 (IPAE 2), launched in December 2017.
The fund I&P Afrique Entrepreneurs 2, launched in December 2017 with a first closing at €50 million, made its first investments. Operating in various sectors of activity, the first companies of IPAE 2 portfolio share a common feature: the choice to develop their activities, from the outset, in several African countries. Two of them also share a strong technological component.
Launched in 2014, The African Management Institute (AMI) provides formalized training to empower managers and entrepreneurs.
AMI has developed over 45 practical business modules – including over 2,000 tools – with Africa’s leading business schools and global experts on adult learning. AMI’s training strategy and programs are based on a blended offer of both online material and in-person workshops with experts in their field.
Through its programmes, AMI aims to reach 20,000 people in 11 African countries.
AMI was co-founded by Jonathan Cook and Rebecca Harrison.
Jonathan Cook is the current Chairman of AMI. He has over 25 year-experience in management education, facilitation, coaching and consulting. Prior to founding AMI, Jonathan spent almost 10 years at GIBS, one of Africa’s leading Business Schools, where he served at various times as a senior lecturer, the Director of Executive Education, Academic Director, Executive Director and finally Director of the Business School until December 2013.
Before that, he spent 14 years as a faculty member at Wits Business School, where he founded the Management Development Unit and later became Director of Academic Programmes. He also spent 10 years with the National Institute for Personnel Research in Johannesburg. Jonathan continues to teach part time at GIBS in the areas of leadership and personal development, and is chief consultant of Thornhill Associates, where he advises companies in developing and implementing leadership development processes using customised 360-degree questionnaires.
Rebecca Harrison is the current CEO of AMI and has led the team since inception. Previously, Rebecca spent 9 years as a foreign correspondent and manager for Reuters News Agency, where she led business coverage in Africa and reported on politics, markets and development from 13 countries in Africa, Europe and the Middle East. Rebecca completed her MBA in Entrepreneurship at South Africa’s Gordon Institute of Business Science, where she was awarded a Kellogg Foundation grant to conduct research into innovation in low-income markets. She is passionate about democratising skills development and supporting entrepreneurship in Africa through practical and affordable learning tools.
I&P committed alongside with AMI to:
• Help AMI further its reach in existing and new markets
• Bringing quality education to middle management of African companies
• Delivering employability training programs and formation to entrepreneurship to the youth, women and a larger number of small-scale entrepreneurs
AFRIBON, launched in 2012, is specialized in the creation and marketing of food flavours. The group has five production sites in total: four in East Africa (Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania) and one in Cameroon.
AFRIBON is currently the only company to produce locally and offer a tailor-made service to its customers, including notably manufacturers of beverages, biscuits and dairy products.
AFRIBON was created and is managed by two entrepreneurs :
Julien GIUGE is the co-founder and Managing Director of AFRIBON. He graduated from ESSEC and worked for nine years in China, where he was for three years the manager of the Chinese subsidiary of the AROMATECH Group, a French group specialising in the production of flavours and fragrances.
Anne MERIENNE is the co-founder and Director of the Kenyan sector. A graduate of ESCP, she has worked in China and the United Arab Emirates for the Beaumanoir group and the Accor group on management control and business development positions.
Based in Kenya, Anne and Julien have lived in several African countries over the past five years (Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda).
I&P is committed alongside Afribon to :
• Develop the activities of the group in the current countries of operation
• Finance a new production line
• Strengthen the group's structure on cross-cutting activities
• Support the group's development in new countries
• Creation of many skilled jobs
• Creating opportunities for young teams composed mainly of women
• A service that reduces a major bottleneck in the food industry
• Develop the skills of local teams
• Substitution to imports
English
Français