Man Capital's $120mln Right to Dream deal, Mediterrania sells final piece of Cash Plus, IFC and others mull backing for new tower company, and more...

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Last week in brief... Soccer formed the basis of the biggest Africa-related private capital deal that took place last week. Man Capital, the investment arm of the Mansour Group, the private Egyptian conglomerate, announced its deal with Right to Dream, a business founded more than 20 years ago in Ghana building what it describes as an eco-system of soccer academies, professional soccer clubs, and universities to give educational, training and leadership development opportunities to talented youth who typically lack access to such opportunities. The capital from the investment will be used to hire more people, open an academy in Egypt and develop its current operations in Ghana and Denmark.

Man Capital is investing $120 million into Right to Dream, taking a controlling stake. Mohamed Mansour, founder of the Mansour Group will Chair Right to Dream's board while his son and the CEO of Man Capital, Loutfy Mansour, also joins the board, Tom Vernon, who founded Right to Dream remains CEO and holds the balance of the shares in the business.

Mediterrania Capital Partners has sold its remaining holding in a money transfer business it first backed in 2014. The private equity firm had sold a large portion of its 49% stake in Cash Plus to Groupe Richbond in 2019 and last week announced it had sold the rest of its stake. Groupe Richbond was one of the buyers along with the Amar family. A representative declined to disclose how much they are paying for the stake.

Hints of a potential 9-figure telecoms tower deal surfaced last week. The IFC is considering an investment in a new company called Eastcastle Infrastructure founded by Peter Lewis and Pankaj Kulshrestha, two former Eaton Tower executives, last year. It looks like African Infrastructure Investment Management, Adenia Partners and IFC are all evaluating potential equity investments in the firm which would end up with them owning almost 96% of the firm. Eastcastle is looking for almost $240 million to finance the planned deployment of 1,950 towers across Nigeria, Cote d'Ivoire, and the DRC.

News of Pembani Remgro's deal with C&I solar developer GridX in December emerged last week. The infrastructure investment firm has agreed to provide the core equity for a new C&I solar holding being set up by both firms. GridX Duara Holdings, as the entity is called, will use the capital to develop a pipeline of solar power and battery storage projects across the continent. There's plenty of opportunity for the new venture. As industrial activity on the continent grows, demand for commercial and industrial solar energy developments is expected to be very strong.

Eos Capital has made an investment in a private healthcare company in Namibia. The Windhoek-based private equity firm is taking a minority stake in Erongo Medical Group which has grown from a small community hospital in 1998 into a group that offers both hospital and other medically specialist services. The group has regional expansion ambitions, and the capital from the investment will be used for both organic and acquisition growth opportunities.

As with every week, there were several venture capital deals last week. Pula, an insurtech startup with offices in Kenya and Switzerland has raised $6 million for its Series A in a round led by TLcom Capital. Women's World Banking also participated. The deal is the eleventh for TLcom's $71 million TIDE Africa Fund which will be represented on Pula's board by Omobola Johnson. TLcom's Managing Partner Maurizio Caio will be a board observer.

In another Series A deal, Quona Capital has led a group of investors backing Cowrywise, a three-year-old digital wealth management startup based in Lagos. Between them, the investors are putting $3 million to work in the business which will use the capital for a number of initiatives; these include expanding its product offering, hire more employees, attract more fund managers to the platform as well as build out the startup’s nascent investment management infrastructure.

Innovex, a tech startup based in Uganda, has landed an undisclosed amount of seed financing from Gaia Impact Fund. Launched in 2016 by Douglas Baguma and David Tusubira, two graduates of Makerere University, the firm has developed a cloud-based Internet of Things (IoT) service that gives solar providers, performance, and distribution companies the ability to remotely monitor and manage the operations and payment for their energy systems. The investment will be used by Innovex to push the adoption of the startup’s solution to another 100 solar distributors across the continent.

We end this week with news of two new CEO appointments. Mamedupi Matsipa is succeeding Ata Capital's founder Lelo Rantlaone as the alternative investment firm's new CEO. She's been with the firm for 7 years originating and executing transactions for the firm’s funds and represents their interests on portfolio company boards.

And Abi Mustapha-Maduakor, one AVCA's former chief operating officers, is rejoining the industry association as its new CEO. to be its new CEO. She joins from MedAccess, a subsidiary of the UK’s CDC Group, where, as Head of Business Operations and Finance, she oversaw the unit’s financial and risk management, strategy implementation, and organizational development functions.

That's it for this week. As always, you can review these and other stories by clicking through to this week's preview edition of the newsletter.

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