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amethis mena fund II
Amethis, an investment fund manager dedicated to the African continent, has announced the first closing of the Amethis MENA Fund II (AMF II) at EUR 85 million.

Proparco, via FISEA +, the AFD Group facility advised by Proparco and part of the Choose Africa initiative, has just signed a EUR 10m equity investment in AMF II, alongside other development finance institutions such as the European Investment Bank (EIB), the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC). Private investors as well as the Edmond de Rothschild Group, Amethis' partner, also participated in this first closing.

AMF II targets investments ranging from €5 million to €15 million in family-owned businesses and high-growth small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Morocco, Egypt, Tunisia, and Jordan, operating in the consumer, healthcare, education, business services, manufacturing and technology sectors.

By supporting an investment fund that targets SMEs in North Africa, a segment that generally struggles to mobilize financing, this project is fully in line with the Choose Africa framework. The FISEA+ facility aims to enable African VSEs/SMEs to find long-term financing to overcome the crisis and relaunch their activity and is therefore part of the Choose Africa Resilience component deployed by AFD Group.

In addition, Proparco signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Amethis to qualify the project for the 2X Challenge, the development banks' gender equality initiative of which Proparco is a member. The qualification of a project for the 2X Challenge is a strong commitment to women's economic empowerment.