The Mastercard Foundation Africa Growth Fund is a bold initiative—a fund of funds—established in March 2022 to catalyze risk capital through Investment Vehicles (IVs) with a Gender Lens investing approach. The Fund seeks to enable female-led and gender-diverse, African-owned, African-led, and Africa based Investment Vehicles to fund and provide value-creation handholding to growing Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Sub-Saharan Africa.
The Fund is contributing to 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 Mastercard Foundation Africa Growth Fund has already achieved significant milestones.
- Impact through the allocation of close to US$150 million in investment capacity to 18 Investment Vehicles in the portfolio, driving transformative impact across across 12 countries in Africa and supporting 49 portfolio companies so far. This includes 9 IVs receiving investment capital commitments to catalyze growth and 9 supported with warehousing and working capital, unlocking opportunities for businesses to thrive and create lasting change.
- Empowering livelihoods: The Africa Growth Fund has invested in vehicles that have enabled the creation of 2,500 direct full-time jobs, including 1,100 for women in their portfolio companies.
- Empowering Local Investment: All 9 Investment Vehicles supported with Investment Capital are rooted in Africa’s growth story and are actively raising capital from African and international investors.
- Championing Gender-Lens Investments: The Africa Growth Fund is building a thriving ecosystem by empowering gender-diverse, first-time, and emerging Investment Vehicles, with 75% of supported IVs being female-led. Recognized for its impact, the Fund received the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Award at AVCA’s 20th Anniversary Conference, underscoring its drive to promote inclusivity in the private capital landscape.
Transition of Fund Advisor Role
The first phase of the program was managed by a consortium of partners led by the Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA) with Investisseurs & Partenaires (I&P) as the Fund Advisor, ESPartners (ESP) as the Business Development Services (BDS) provider, African Communications Group ACG) as the communications partner, Criterion Institute as the GDEI partner and Genesis Analytics as the learning partner.
After three years, with the US$150 million investment capacity almost fully allocated to the existing portfolio and priority pipeline, the responsibilities of I&P as the Fund Advisor will transition to MEDA. MEDA has established a dedicated in-house team at MEDA Mauritius and will directly manage all relationships with Investment Vehicles and relevant partners in the ecosystem following a transition period that would end on March 31st, 2025.
I&P has contributed to the success of the Africa Growth Fund as a partner in the co-design and within the role of Fund Advisor. Thanks to a Fund of Funds team based across the continent, I&P successfully developed a pipeline, supported IVs to design and raise their fund, build their capacity, and assessed and presented these IVs to the Fund’s IC. As Fund Advisor, I&P has contributed to building a portfolio of IVs that is fully aligned with the Fund’s mandate and impact targets.
I&P will collaborate with MEDA over a three-month period to ensure a smooth transition for all the IVs and partners of the Fund. We are committed to ensuring that all activities will continue seamlessly, with no disruption as we continue to focus on the impact that the Fund has committed to achieve.
“MEDA is grateful for I&P’s partnership in being part of the team that has laid a solid foundation on which the Fund will continue to build and as we all work towards the success and impact of the Fund. MEDA looks forward to continuing to foster inclusive and sustainable economic growth for entrepreneurs across the continent.”
— Dorothy Nyambi, President & CEO, MEDA
“I&P is proud to have contributed to this transformational Fund, and grateful to have worked and learned alongside emerging IV managers and consortium partners. We thank MEDA and the Mastercard Foundation for their trust and are confident that MEDA will continue leading the Fund towards its important impact on livelihoods, entrepreneurs, and the ecosystem.”
— Jeremy Hajdenberg, Co-CEO, I&P.
“The Mastercard Foundation is grateful for the invaluable contributions made by partners to deliver the Mastercard Foundation Africa Growth Fund. Reaching the current milestone would not have been possible without the seamless collaboration of all the partners. We express special thanks to the I&P team who have been instrumental in advancing the program from its inception stage to its current state. Your dedication and efforts have been key in delivering the impact to date, and we are highly appreciative.”
— Daniel Hailu, Executive Director Pan African Programs, Mastercard Foundation
About the Mastercard Foundation African Growth Fund (The Fund)
The Mastercard Foundation Africa Growth Fund is a $200 million (USD) impact-investing initiative by the Mastercard Foundation. It works through African investment vehicles to support early-stage, growth-oriented SMEs on the continent, to enable dignified and fulfilling work for young people, particularly young women. The Mastercard Foundation Africa Growth Fund is catalytic, helping to crowd in additional capital for African entrepreneurs, particularly female entrepreneurs, by strengthening and de-risking African investment vehicles that are committed to advancing gender equity in entrepreneurship. For more information visit: www.africagrowthfund.org
About Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA)
MEDA has been implementing market-driven programs globally for 70 years. It combines innovative financial and technical expertise to provide sustainable agri-food systems with decent work for people living in poverty focusing on systematically marginalized communities, including women and youth. Our core expertise lies in market systems, environmental sustainability, and climate action, gender equality and social inclusion, inclusive financial services, and impact investment. MEDA focuses on sustainable and inclusive systemic change by partnering with local private, public, and civil society actors, strengthening individuals, institutions, communities, and ecosystems. For more information please visit: www.meda.org
About Investisseurs & Partenaires (I&P)
Investisseurs & Partenaires (I&P) is a pioneering impact investment group, dedicated to financing and supporting entrepreneurs in Africa. Since its creation in 2002, I&P has supported more than 250 companies operating in various sectors, based in SubSaharan Africa, and finances at least 50 more SMEs each year. I&P's team is spread over 10 sites in Africa (Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Mali, Niger, Senegal, and Uganda) as well as in France and the United States (Washington DC). It counts more than 160 people specializing in investment, impact, and more generally in supporting African businesses. For more information please visit: www.ietp.com