Sub-Saharan Africa: Proparco is supporting the development of entrepreneurial initiatives with a strong social purpose

Investisseurs et Partenaires, which was set up in 2002 by Patrice Hoppenot and taken over in 2011 by Jean-Michel Sévérino, is part of the family of “impact investors”. Convinced that sustainable African growth requires developing profitable and responsible microenterprises and SMEs, I&P’s mission involves supporting the development of entrepreneurial initiatives with a strong social purpose. 

The Investisseurs & Partenaires Afrique Entrepreneurs 2 (IPAE2) fund, which has a target size of EUR 90m, will make equity and quasi-equity investments via tickets ranging between EUR 0.3m and EUR 3m in sectoral thematic areas with strong inclusive impacts. This includes food production and the local agribusiness value chain, the social sectors (health, education), clean energy and sanitation projects, and inclusive financial services. 

In addition to this investment, FISEA is providing a technical assistance envelope to (i) improve the performance of partner MFIs and SMEs, (ii) strengthen in particular their organizational and management capacities and (iii) enable them to benefit from the transfer of expertise.

 

Based on the results achieved by the first fund, we estimate that the project will contribute to supporting over 4,000 decent jobs and will allow some 2,500 employees to benefit from training in the fields of HR, information systems, marketing, ESG and governance. 

The project will also develop the private sector, as 32 of the 38 planned transactions will concern social purpose SMEs (with 70% being start-ups). 

Finally, it will have environmental and social impacts, with 11% of the fund’s investments focusing on activities that contribute to the fight against climate change and about 20% of investments focusing on the social sectors, some of which will support women entrepreneurs.