In May 2019 Africa Global Funds reported that RENEW’s Impact Angel Network, one of the more active early equity investors in Ethiopia, had exited two investments to a regional private equity fund and a family office.
RENEW did not name the companies for confidentiality reasons, but it said two rounds of angel financing had backed an Ethiopian production firm that exports abroad, buys from thousands of smallholder farmers, and employs hundreds of workers, with reported gross IRRs of about 26.7% and 17.6%.
CEO Matt Davis said the network targets East African SMEs that are often overlooked because of size and location, and that the work was supported in part through Canada’s Accelerating Business Growth project after an earlier USAID pilot.
Kept as business and FDI archive, the IAN exits date how impact investors tried to prove SME returns in Ethiopia’s private sector.
Sources: Africa Global Funds