Mastercard Foundation Africa Growth Fund

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I&P is be part of a new ambitious initiative for the investment industry in Sub-Saharan Africa: the USD$200 million Mastercard Foundation Africa Growth Fund, a Fund of Funds which works through African investment vehicles to support early-stage, growth-oriented small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and startups on the continent.

Strategy: an initiative dedicated to African investment vehicles

African SMEs struggle to access the financing they need to scale, constraining their potential for job creation and limiting their development.

The Mastercard Foundation Africa Growth Fund tackles this challenge by investing in and strengthening African investment vehicles that in turn support African SMEs.

In addition to providing capital for investment vehicles, the Fund of Funds offers a business development facility for their portfolio companies.

Targets and objectives

The Fund-of-Funds initiative uses gender-lens investing principles to help advance the Mastercard Foundation’s Young Africa Works strategy, which aims to enable 30 million young people in Africa, particularly young women, to access dignified and fulfilling work by 2030.

The program provides funding for Early-stage, Growth, Debt and Seed VC Funds and other non-traditional funds. A promising pipeline of 180 diverse investment vehicles has already been built.

The Mastercard Foundation Africa Growth Fund is implemented by a consortium of partners, led by Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA) and including Investisseurs & Partenaires (I&P), Entrepreneurial Solutions Partners (ESP), Genesis Analytics, the Criterion Institute, and Africa Communications Media Group.

Investisseurs & Partenaires (I&P) is the Fund Advisor for the Fund of Funds, responsible for sourcing, assessing, and supporting the investment vehicles.