RMBpartnerswithConvergencePartnerstotransformtheAfricantechnologylandscape

 

The challenge

Convergence Partners, a seasoned pan-African investment management firm focused exclusively on the technology and digital sector across Africa, announced the successful first close of its third fund, the Convergence Partners Digital Infrastructure Fund (CPDIF) at USD120m. The fund is targeting a final size of USD250m.

Coupled with its first close, Convergence Partners announced the maiden investment for the third fund - acquisition of 100% of Ctrack ‘s operations in Africa and the Middle East from Inseego Corp. (Nasdaq: INSG)

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).

The investment opportunities will be driven by the infrastructure needs of the emerging growth themes in the digital infrastructure ecosystem, specifically fibre, wireless, data centres, towers, as well as 5G, Cloud, Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), fintech and network virtualisation.

RMB solution

The multi-jurisdictional fund raise and acquisition required an innovative funding solution to facilitate the successful acquisition of Ctrack and to establish a dual-currency funding platform to enable the fund to secure multi-currency investment opportunities across Africa, going forward.

RMB’s Leveraged Finance team, developed a bespoke debt raising platform, which enabled the successful acquisition of Ctrack from Inseego Corp and gives Convergence Partners access to flexible dual-currency funding as they continue to invest and transform the technology and digital sector across Africa.

This will foster a close relationship between RMB and Convergence Partners and further entrench RMB as leading bank in the African technology and digital sector.

How did this enable the client?

The bespoke funding platform provides the third fund with access to a dual-currency debt raising platform to facilitate investments across Africa. The fund now has access to immediate liquidity which makes it more agile in deploying capital, securing investments and unlocking value for all its stakeholders.

Client	Convergence Partners
Size of the Transaction	USD50m – R750m
Sector	Private Equity: Telecommunication and Technology
Capabilities	Leveraged Finance
RMB's role	Funder Structuring bank
Country	South Africa, Pan-African