CardinalStone Closes $64m Fund, Invests in Two Firms

March 25, 2021
CardinalStone Capital Advisers

By Aduragbemi Omiyale

The maiden private equity fund of CardinalStone Capital Advisers (CCA), a Lagos based private equity fund manager, has been closed.

In a statement made available to Business Post on Tuesday, it was disclosed that the fund, CardinalStone Capital Advisers Growth Fund LP (CCAGF), was closed at $64 million.

The CCAGF is a generalist fund that makes equity investments of $5 million to $10 million in high growth SMEs operating across a range of sectors which include industrials, agribusiness, consumer goods and services, education, healthcare and financial services.

Those who invested in the fund were a mix of commercial and development finance institutions like the Kuramo Capital, the UK Government’s CDC Group, FMO – the Dutch Entrepreneurial Development Bank, the International Finance Corporation (IFC, part of the World Bank Group), the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) and a number of high-net-worth individuals.

Recall that in December 2018, the fund recorded its first close and final close in September 2020.

It was established to support the growth and institutionalisation of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) operating in two of West Africa’s leading economies—Nigeria and Ghana.

Already, the fund manager has invested in two companies; iFitness Centre Limited and AppZone Group Limited. It promised to make further investments in another six to seven organisations over the next two years.

iFitness, Nigeria’s leading and fastest-growing fitness chain, operates with a mission of improving the overall health and well-being of the average Nigerian by providing high quality, yet affordable fitness offerings.

On its part, AppZone, the foremost fintech solutions provider in Africa, provides a bouquet of offerings, developed with proprietary intellectual property, targeted at accelerating economic prosperity across Africa by leveraging technology to deepen financial inclusion.

“We are excited about our investments in both iFitness and AppZone. The founders of both businesses have ambitions to disrupt and consolidate key segments of their respective industries and have done an amazing job establishing solid foundations that complement CCA’s brand of bold, yet collaborative, investing.

“We look forward to partnering with more like-minded founder/promoter teams towards building businesses with transformational impact across our target markets,” the co-founder and Managing Director of CCA, Mr Yomi Jemibewon, commented on both investments.

On his part, Mr Femi Ogunjimi, the co-founder and MD of CCA expressed his satisfaction with the “successful close of our fund in the prevailing challenging environment.”

“We are very grateful to all of our limited partners for the resounding support shown through the process; their support is an endorsement of our hands-on approach to building SMEs into sector champions,” he added.

Aduragbemi Omiyale

Aduragbemi Omiyale is a journalist with Business Post Nigeria, who has passion for news writing. In her leisure time, she loves to read.

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