UK-based private equity asset manager Apis Partners has raised more than $157m for its first fund, having secured commitments from limited partners including financial services firms Intesa Sanpaolo and Old Mutual.
The banks were joined as an LP in Apis Growth Fund I by other institutional investors and financial firms from Europe, North America and Africa, including European development finance providers CDC, European Investment Bank, FMO and Swedfund.
Apis will supply growth equity to growth-stage financial services providers in Africa and Asia, and has identified companies with novel business models addressing payments, savings and investments, credit, insurance and capital markets, and those involved in last-mile distribution, as possible targets.
Udayan Goyal, co-founder and managing partner of Apis, said: “Financial inclusion has a direct, measurable impact on GDP growth as well as offering an enormous, untapped market, expanding further thanks to the confluence of demographic and macroeconomic growth factors.
“We are firmly convinced that financial services will deliver in the next decade the same level of return on investment as the telecom boom of Africa and South Asia of the last two decades: we aim to bring that opportunity to our investors.”