East Africa’s Flower Industry Could Bloom Brighter With USD 146 Mn Raised By PE Firm EXEO

EXEO Capital, a private equity firm specializing in Middle Market, Growth Capital, Buyout and Industry Consolidation investments has announced the closure of its second food and agribusiness fund. In this funding round, the firm has secured USD 146 Mn, a notable 50 percent growth compared to its first fund.

Herman Marais, the Managing Partner at EXEO Capital, said: “We are pleased with the extent to which investors in our first fund followed on in the second. Also encouraging is the number of commercial investors who joined the fund. This has helped to bring the firm’s assets under management to more than USD 300 Mn.”

“The new Fund was also instrumental in establishing one of the largest summer flower export groups in the East African region,” he said adding that the fund has also been spent on five new transactions in different sub-sectors.

“The footprint of our portfolio companies today span eight countries – Kenya; Uganda; Rwanda; Tanzania; Ethiopia; Mozambique; Zambia; and South Africa,” Marais said further stating that it looks to expand to the West African markets of Ghana and Ivory Coast.

Other than investing in its traditional areas of focus which is food and agriculture sector, the firm is also eyeing opportunities in logistics, fast-moving consumer goods, business support services, private education and health care.

EXEO invests between USD 5 Mn and USD 15 Mn in companies which have a growth potential as well as ‘management know-how’.

“Our task as long-term investors is to find established businesses with resilient and vertically integrated business models that can scale up relatively fast. Our approach to finding these companies is on-the-ground networking. We look for founders and management who are willing to partner with us and who are at risk with us, who maintain the highest ethical standards, are strong on sustainability principles, and have a strong social license. These are the companies that are more successful over the longer term,” Marais said.

Featured Image Courtesy: Wall Street Journal