Warner Music Group (WMG) acquires a leading African music distributor. Andreessen Horowitz's (a16z) investment in South Africa's Gaming startup .
Warner Music Group (WMG) acquires a leading African music distributor. Andreessen Horowitz's (a16z) investment in South Africa's Gaming startup .
Also, Kenya's Copia Global raises $50million in Series C, Sengal's PAPS new Pre-Series A round.
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Warner Music Group (WMG) acquires a leading African music distributor.
Warner Music Group Corp. one of the world’s big three recording companies has acquired a majority stake in leading African music distribution company Africori with an initial investment in early 2020. The company with offices in Lagos, London, and Johannesburg has the largest catalog and A&R network in Africa and currently services about 7,000 artists and 850 clients with reported strong revenue growth.
Why is this important? The African music industry has grown significantly in recent years, driven by the popularity of Afrobeats, a youthful population, strong connections from the Africans in the Diaspora still keen on local content, and increasing more streaming opportunities. The WMG acquisition increases its footprint in an exciting and fast-growing market as local musical talents look to leverage the streaming opportunities to push their brands globally.
Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) investment in South Africa's Gaming startup Carry1st.
South African publisher of social games and interactive content across Africa Carry1st raised a $20 million Series A extension led by Andreessen Horowitz(a16z), the company also received investments from other investors like Rapper Nas, Avenir, and Google. This is a16z’s first investment in an Africa-headquartered company with previous investment in US-based companies with Africa operations like Branch and Zipline
Why is this important? Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) is a global powerhouse when it comes to venture capital investing having backed companies like Facebook, Box, Airbnb to name a few. An investment in an African startup shows growing interest from the global investment community keen to understand and participate in the African startup space considering its huge opportunities and market size.
Private Equity Deals:
France-based investment management company Eiffel Investment Group has indicated that it wants to mobilise $200 million for an investment fund to finance the energy transition in Africa.
BluePeak has partnered with Ethos Mezzanine Partners to jointly invest $31.5million in Pan-African real estate platform Grit.
Venture Capital Deals:
Kenyan-based B2C e-commerce company Copia Global has raised $50 million in a Series C equity round led by Goodwell Investments. The new investors in the round include Zebu Investment Partners, the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), and Koa Labs. The existing investors include Lightrock, German development finance institution DEG, and Perivoli Innovations.
Senegal-based logistics and delivery company, PAPS has raised a $4.5 million pre-Series A round led by 4 DX Ventures a pan-African venture capital firm and regional telecom operator Orange. The new investors in this round are Yamaha Motor, LoftyInc Capital, Proparco, To.org, Kepple Ventures, Enza Capital with existing investors namely Uma Ventures, and Saviu Ventures
Moroccan-based B2B fintech startup Chari has raised a bridge round of funding at a $100 million valuation.
ExpandCart a Cairo-based e-commerce builder platform builder has raised $2.7 million in a pre-Series B bridge funding round, led by Betatron Venture Group of Hong Kong with participation from existing investors: Agility Ventures from Kuwait and Sawari Ventures of Egypt.
Finclusion Group an AI fintech startup and provider of credit-centric products has raised $20 million in debt and equity pre-Series A financing. Participating
investors in the round include Flutterwave co-founder Iyin Aboyeji, Christian Faes LendInvest founder, and Charlie Delingpole ComplyAdvantage founder. Other investors include Amandine Lobelle, Jai Mahtani, Sudeep Ramnani, Jonathan Doerr, Richard Aseme (RCA Ventures), and Klemens Hallmann. The existing investors include Manuel Koser, Alexander Schuetz, Christian Angermayer and Leo Stiegeler .
Nigerian e-health pharmaceutical distribution startup, DrugStoc has secured $4.4 million in a Series A funding round led by Africa HealthCare Master Fund, Vested World, German Development Bank (DEG) amongst others.
M & A Activities:
Ghanaian-based Oba Pack Company Limited has acquired Babator Farming Company Limited (BFC) a 356 hectare irrigated commercial farm from AgDevCo.
Adiwale Fund I, managed by Adiwale Partners has acquired a minority stake in the Senegalese mining company International Drilling Company (IDC).
Liquidity Events:
Kenyan-based specialist in organic coconut products Kentaste Products has secured a $1.5 million loan from EDFI AgriFI (AgriFI), the EU's investment facility dedicated to Agricultural SMEs in developing countries.
Equity Bank Kenya is set to receive £37 million from UK’s development finance institution British International Investment (BII) – formerly known as CDC Group – for lending to small businesses.
Fundraising Events:
Africa’s largest mezzanine fund manager Vantage Capital announced it has arranged R430 million ( about $28.4 million) of mezzanine funding for the development of Seaton Estates, a residential coastal development located on the North Coast of Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa, and promoted by the Collins Residential.
The Central Bank of Ghana has announced the admittance of international debt instruments as collateral for loans to be granted by local Ghanian banks. These include international borrowings of countries, debt securities of multilateral institutions, debt securities of foreign financial enterprises, and companies listed on international stock exchanges.
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