Private equity firm Apis Partners LLP has raised $550 million (about Rs 3,912 crore) for its second fund that will invest across Africa, South Asia and Southeast Asia.
The Apis Growth Fund II received total commitments of $563 million, including the general partners’ commitment, but closed at its increased hard cap of $550 million, the PE firm said in a statement. Its initial target was $400 million.
Global banks, insurance companies, development financial institutions, funds of funds, pension funds, sovereign wealth funds and family offices from the US, Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia came in as limited partners.
The LPs include International Finance Corporation, VCCircle reported last year.
“This commitment brings with it the responsibility for us to continue to focus on our investment activity and execute in our core areas of expertise,” said Matteo Stefanel, managing partner and co-founder at Apis.
Udayan Goyal, managing partner and co-founder at Apis, said the new fund will pursue the firm’s established strategy of investing in financial services, one of the most important sectors globally as well as in capital-light growth markets.
The second fund expects to make equity investments of between $30 million and $50 million into financial services with a focus on capital-light businesses and financial technology companies.
It will also look at investing in related business services segments especially in sub-verticals of payments, credit and savings, insurance, technology enablers and service providers, and capital markets.
The fund will back companies with innovative business models adapted to local conditions and addressing a large portion of the unbanked or underbanked populations.
The size of the second fund is almost double that of Apis Growth Fund I, which closed in 2016 with $287 million of total commitments. The investors in the first fund included the African Development Bank, Prudential Financial Inc. of the, CDC Group Plc of the UK, the European Investment Bank, Dutch development bank FMO, Sweden’s Swedfund and Old Mutual of South Africa.
Apis Partners has completed 14 investments to date in financial services across multiple sub-sectors. Among its early investments in India, Apis Partners placed bets on Mumbai-based Electronic Payment and Services and Chennai-based Star Health and Allied Insurance Company.
Late last year, Apis Partners had led a $60 million (around Rs 387 crore) funding round in green-energy startup Greenlight Planet, which has operations in India and Africa.
From its second fund, Apis had earlier this year committed to invest in L&T Infra Debt Fund.
