Spear Africa Holding II

Spear Capital is a Norwegian PE-initiative with local African presence. The fund is targeting small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in Sub Saharan Africa. Spear Capital is almost fully funded by Norwegian investors. The first fund as closed in 2013. The second fund, Spear Africa Fund II, is set up as a traditional PE fund with a term of 10 +1+1 years. Norfund is one of the key investors of this fund together with Holta Invest, Gjensidige Foundation and the Dutch Treasury Development Fund Triple Jump. In total, these four investors have invested USD 37,5 million in Fund II. Spear’s total capital target for Fund II is USD 75 million. Fund II will be focused on SMEs in the fast-moving consumer goods sector. Primary geographic focus will be Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi and South Africa. Norfund’s investment in Spear Capital Fund II will thereby contribute to supporting viable and commercially-driven SMEs in a market where the access to risk capital is scarce and the demand for capital is high. This investment is additional in the sense that it gives the fund opportunity to deploy capital to countries where other fund managers do not have a strong footprint. On top of that, Norfund’s support to Spear Capital has the potential to create increased interest from even more Nordic private investors.