African Capital Alliance (ACA), a leading pan-African alternative investment firm focused on managing investments across Africa, on Nov.22 announced its equity investment, via its CAPE IV fund, into West Indian Ocean Cable Company (WIOCC), Africa’s hyper scale infrastructure provider.
ACA’s investment forms part of WIOCC’s $200million capital raise. The investment will support WIOCC in its expansion strategy across Africa and accelerate its investment in enhancing the continent’s digital infrastructure.
WIOCC, established in 2007, operates an exceptional hyper scale communications platform that delivers critical services to its wholesale clients across 30 countries in Africa and many more globally.
The platform comprises more than 75,000km of terrestrial fibre, interconnecting well over 100 Points of Presence (PoPs), and seamlessly integrated with its strategic investments in multiple subsea systems.
One of the leading players in Africa’s wholesale connectivity market, WIOCC is responsible for more than 50 percent of capacity activated on the Eastern Africa Submarine Cable System (EASSy), a key undersea fibre-optic cable system connecting countries and consumers in Eastern and Southern Africa to the rest of the world.
The current high calibre management team has been in site since the founding of the company and has had a proven track record of delivering double-digit revenue and EBITDA growth over the last four years towards building a world-class business.
ACA will partner with WIOCC to support the management team in expanding and extending what is Africa’s first, truly hyper scale network infrastructure, accelerating rollout of new digital infrastructure to support its wholesale clients who are cloud operators, content providers, fixed and mobile telecommunications, ISPs and other operators in taking advantage of the many opportunities Africa has to offer – reaching underserved communities, and providing opportunities to millions of people in those remote areas.
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Paul Kokoricha, Partner, African Capital Alliance, said, “WIOCC is a fast-growing wholesale capacity provider in Africa that has positive market fundamentals given the rate at which internet penetration is growing and the desire for more OTT services. Our partnership with them will deliver their vision of being Africa’s leading carriers’ carrier, setting the standard by which performance is measured in the industry, through the delivery of robust and creative solutions for each client, with exceptional support, leading to successful long-term partnerships”
“We are impressed with the management team, and we are confident our partnership will deliver for all stakeholders.” He further added.
According to Chris Wood, CEO of WIOCC, “We are excited to conclude this stage of our capital raise to support further expansion of our hyper scale infrastructure. Telecommunications is a critical service that is helping to drive financial and digital inclusion across Africa, both connecting people to the financial system and digitizing businesses.
“We have made significant progress over the last few years and built a solid foundation from which to grow. The inward investment and partnership with ACA will help us in enabling businesses and consumers in Africa to participate in and benefit from the digital economy. ACA’s track record and partnership mentality will be a welcome addition to WIOCC, and we very much look forward to working with them for long-term sustainable growth.”
