Synergy Capital, the private equity fund focused on Nigeria and Ghana has closed its fund above its target of $100 million. What’s really interesting is after the dust settled, the details of the fund says plainly that Synergy Capital invested in three Nigerian businesses:
1. An e-services company with offerings in e-commerce, e- payment and e-infrastructure (Netplus Advisory),
2. A company manufacturing polypropylene woven sacks for packaging and transporting industrial goods, and
3. A developer of captive and embedded power solutions (Viathan Engineering).
No iSec in there.
We also noticed that Synergy has invested over $20 million in the three Nigerian businesses so far, with plans to fund others later on.
“To date, SPEF has deployed over 20% of its fund in three investments in Nigeria. The Fund made its first investment in an e-services company with offerings in e-commerce, e- payment and e-infrastructure. The Fund also invested in one of the largest non-captive manufacturers of polypropylene woven sacks for packaging and transporting industrial goods such as cement, agricultural goods & food products. Its most recent investment was in a developer of captive and embedded power solutions with a vision to produce and distribute modular and scalable power solutions to meet demand from currently underserved public/government, commercial and residential off- takers, initially in the Lagos metropolis, and subsequently across Nigeria.,” the press release stated.
That’s a lot of money.
Despite the fact that iSec, is poised to revolutionise the Nigerian finance industry with their secure authentication technology, raising $10 million sounded too good to be true at the time. $10 Million in your first round was the highest we had heard to be raised by any Nigerian technology entrepreneur/startup and the deal was reportedly moving along just fine last year, when last we heard from the iSec founder and CEO.
Nevertheless, the idea that local investors may be warming up to techpreneurs holds water since over $20 million went into three Nigerian businesses.
We’ve reached out to both parties for comments and will update as responses come in.
Photo Credit: mondays child via Compfight cc
