Anglophone West Africa-focused Synergy Capital Managers has more than doubled the total raised for its debut fund by pulling in over $230m for the first close of its sophomore vehicle.
Synergy is within a whisker of its $250m target for Fund II, which it said will be used to back SMEs in Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
Although the fund is sector agnostic, Synergy said it would lean towards high-growth industry sectors including FinTech, consumer goods and services, ICT, midstream oil and gas, and power services.
Commercial investors make up about 65 per cent of the first close total, with development finance initiatives providing the remaining 35 per cent.
Synergy said it plans to complete two or three investments by the end of the year, while the final close of the fund is expected to take place in the fourth quarter.
The firm has tapped its $100m debut fund closed in 2015 for ten investments across Nigeria and Ghana.
Its most recent investment from Fund I was the Nigerian and Ghana subsidiaries of ICT solutions business Dimension Data.
NorthStar Finance Services is one of the FinTechs currently in Synergy’s portfolio. The company offers financial services products across West Africa, predominantly Nigeria and Ghana, including solutions for mortgages, life insurance, short-term loans and remittances.
Another FinTech to receive backing from Synergy is NetPlusDotCom, which offers B2B and B2B2C e-commerce, digital payments and e-infrastructure to companies within Nigeria.
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