Inspired Evolution, a pan-African private equity firm based in Cape Town, South Africa, has raised $199.4 million in funding from a number of international funders in order to finance the clean energy transition in Africa. The portfolio manager is committed to remove the barrier on access to finance for the development of renewable energy.
The financial closing was achieved in conditional commitments from seven international development institutions. The investors include the African Development Bank (AfDB), European Investment Bank (EIB), Emerging Markets Climate Action Fund (EMCAF), Finnish Fund for Industrial Cooperation (FinnFund), Netherlands Development Finance Corporation (FMO), Swedfund International, and Swiss Investment Fund for Emerging Markets (SIFEM).
Inspired Evolution has raised the amount for its Evolution III fund. The Mauritius-domiciled fund of the climate-centred company aims to finance renewable energy, energy efficiency, and energy access projects, as well as investments in several companies in Africa. Inspired Evolution has targeted the capitalization of $400 million in the Evolution III fund and has a 12-to-18-month window to achieve the target.
The Evolution III fund will target investment in around 10 to 15 renewable energy and energy efficiency projects over a period of five years. The fund will select reputed growth companies and target back investments into greenfield projects. It will also select qualified brownfield projects with a high chance of conversion success.
Wayne Keast, Co-founder and Managing Partner of Inspired Evolution, said the achievement of first financial closing in a very short timeframe is a great validation of the company’s investment thesis, active investment management approach, and the desired results.
In recent years, Inspired Evolution has grown its investments in renewable energy in Africa up to a commendable scale through its multiple funds. The Evolution II fund of the company have reached financial close in 2019. This fund has awarded $7.3 million to the multinational clean energy producer, Gigawatt Global, for the development Mubuga solar power plant, which has been commissioned in Burundi in October 2021.
