Africa Tech Festival 2024 – The Home of AfricaCom, AfricaTech & AfricaIgnite is part of the Informa Tech Division of Informa PLC

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Africa Tech Festival 2024 – The Home of AfricaCom, AfricaTech & AfricaIgnite
Event dates: 11-14 Nov 2024
Exhibition Opening Dates: 12 - 14 Nov 2024Cape Town International Convention Centre, Cape Town
Event dates: 11-14 Nov 2024
Exhibition Opening Dates: 12 - 14 Nov 2024,
Cape Town International Convention Centre, Cape Town

VC / Investor of the Year Award

This Award recognises the most impactful fund in Africa, which provides investment to support, build and scale their investee businesses.

DISCOVER THE FINALISTS

Voting is now closed, best of luck to our finalists!

The winners will be unveiled at the exclusive drinks reception, taking place on Wednesday 9 November from 6-8pm at the CTICC.

Meridiam

Asset and fund manager Meridiam invested $48m in Raxio to help it expand and build over 12 tier III carrier-neutral data centres across the African continent. 

Following the first flagship facility in Uganda and launching the construction of our Ethiopian data centre, Meridiams investment is a testament to Raxio's strategy of developing an Africa-wide network of local, interconnected facilities that provide customers with affordable, state-of-the-art solutions for their IT infrastructure, in a neutral, 'always on' environment.

Meridiam also believes that investing in Raxio's data centre platform fits their purpose of delivering sustainable infrastructure that improves the quality of people's lives. Meridiam is excited to contribute to developing Africa's digital infrastructure by helping to roll out energy-efficient data centres that will drive the continent's digital transformation and be a catalyst for highly skilled jobs while respecting the local environment.

Meridiam has already invested more than $4.7 billion into African infrastructure, including 4 solar power plants in Senegal, a geothermal power plant in Ethiopia, a hydropower plan in Gabon, a biomass site in Côte d'Ivoire, and solar home systems in West Africa.
African data centre investment is on the rise;  a recent report from The African Data Centres Association (ADCA) and Xalam Analytics claimed Africa needs 1,000MW and 700 facilities to match South Africa.

South African Housing and Infrastructure Fund

In 2019, The South African Housing and Infrastructure Fund diversified its real estate investment portfolio into high-growth, service-oriented assets further up the real estate development value chain. 

The fund identified optical fibre and renewable energy as the next growth frontiers for their affordable housing and land portfolio. Metro Fibre Networks was a high growth emerging player in South Africa's Fibre-To-The-Home and Fibre-To-The-Business markets. 

Metro Fibre's shareholders and management embarked on a capital expenditure expansion drive which would see the company invest over $130-Million in its core network, to enhance its FTTH and FTTB offering. To support the CAPEX expansion plan, the shareholders at the time, which included Sanlam Private Equity and African Rainbow Capital Investment Limited, agreed to contribute additional equity capital as well as attract a new investor to Metro Fibre's shareholder group. SAHIF jumped at the opportunity, constituted a consortium with Old Mutual Hybrid and completed its first acquisition of a minority equity investment in Metro Fibre. 

In 2022, SAHIF led a consortium that concluded the total buy-out of Sanlam Private Equity and African Rainbow Capital Investment Limited from Metro Fibre Networx. The FTTH and FTTB telecommunications industry in South Africa is dominated by multinational mobile network companies like Vodafone and MTN, vertically integrated publicly listed telecommunications players like Telkom South Africa, and institutional investors with a paucity of private investors brave enough to venture into it. Rali Mampeule is an antithesis of this South African FTTH and FTTB industry trend and this presentation chronicles Rali Mampeule's trajectory to becoming South Africa's biggest black investor in fibre and his plan to expand fibre to the townships through SAHIF's Smart Home and Smart City model. 

Enygma Ventures

Enygma Ventures is an investment fund for female entrepreneurs and women founders, focused on Southern Africa or SADC. 

Enygma Ventures is a unique purpose-driven investment fund, led by award-winning entrepreneurs with 40 years of combined experience growing and scaling businesses in Africa, US & Europe. 

'We understand the struggles and challenges of building big businesses, having built big businesses ourselves. We wholeheartedly believe in win/win scenarios for the investor and entrepreneur and therefore have the ability to create flexible financial solutions with efficient & strategic deployment of capital whilst providing helpful tailored support. Through our networks we are able to create access to expertise, mentors, local and overseas markets. We are truly collaborative partners.'