Verod Capital Management has announced an interim close of Verod Capital Growth Fund III at $150m, Africa Venture Capital Association (AVCA) reported.
The amount exceeded the size of the $115 million Verod Capital Growth Fund II LP (Verod Fund II) that was closed in 2016.
Similar to Verod Fund II, the investment strategy for Verod Fund III is to focus on small and medium scale enterprises in anglophone West Africa, with the aim of building a diverse portfolio across several fast-developing industries including light manufacturing, consumer goods and services, business services, agriculture, education, healthcare and financial services.
Danladi Verheijen, Cofounder and Managing Partner of Verod Capital, said: “We are very grateful for the confidence of our world-class set of investors in our team and differentiated value-creation strategy. We continue to attract an extremely high caliber set of investors and we look forward to working with them to support the growth businesses in our markets.”
Verod Fund III is supported by a diverse group of prominent global institutional investors and includes a mix of international fund of funds, asset managers, foundations, sovereign wealth funds, family offices and development finance institutions with extensive experience investing in emerging markets. The firm says it expects to hold a final close later this year.
Asante Capital acted as global fundraising advisor, Clifford Chance (UK), BLC Chambers (Mauritius) and Udo Udoma & Belo-osagie (Nigeria) acted as legal advisers, while Trident Trust ( Mauritius) will provide administrative services to Verod Fund III.
