West African agribusiness fund closes on $49m

Injaro Agricultural Capital Holdings, the West Africa-focused impact investment fund targeting small and medium sized companies, held a final close on $49 million late last week, just missing its $50 million target.

Injaro Investments, the fund manager, attracted commitments from nine investors overall, three of which joined in the final round. They were CDC, the UK international development impact fund, which committed $15 million, FMO, the Dutch development bank that injected $10 million through the MASSIF fund, and Proparco committing $7 million through the Investment and Support fund for Business in Africa.

Early investors comprised three family offices and three foundations, including the Soros Economic Development Fund, AGRA, the African agriculture development organisation, and Lundin Foundation, a family-founded philanthropic organisation. Investment into the fund must be committed for 10 years, although there is no minimum commitment amount stipulated.

Injaro has already deployed capital across seven deals and expects to continue making three to four investments each year. It has projects in the pipeline in Ivory Coast, Ghana and Mali, with plans in development for further investments in Burkina Faso and Niger.

Of its targeted countries – Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, Ghana, and Sierra Leone – Sierra Leone is the only one the fund is yet to invest in.

Injaro targets small and medium sized agribusinesses, which operate in all areas of the agriculture chain, from primary agriculture to value-added production and ancillary services such as cold storage, according to Dadié Tayoraud, principal at Injaro.