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I&P has developed an innovative strategy to best meet the financing and support needs of small and medium-sized African companies, based on four complementary business models.
Our approach
Investisseurs & Partenaires is an investor exclusively dedicated to African SMEs. Our mission is to contribute to the growth and sustainable development of the African continent by financing and advising entrepreneurs, project leaders, and SMEs seeking economic, social and environmental growth and success.
In Africa, these SMEs are the real missing middle of African economies. These enterprises face two key obstacles: lack of access to long-term financing and to skills and human resources.
Investisseurs & Partenaires brings its finance and management skills to its active partnership with the entrepreneur. I&P puts the entrepreneur at the heart of its approach and strives to build a long-term relationship of trust with him/her.
1. I&P employs a variety of finance instruments (minority equity or quasi-equity investments, seed financing, loans, etc.) according to the partner company’s size and maturity.
2. I&P conducts an in-depth analysis of the company prior to financing and provides strategic advice anf support thoughout the investment period.
I&P actively partcipates in the development and implementation of the business strategy and in the implementation of management tools developed with the entrepreneur.
3. Technical assistance resources are raised from investors of the fund and other grant-making organizations. These resources are used for skills development, knowledge transfer and training for entrepreneurs and their team.
4. I&P values its partner companies in professional organizations, gives them communication and visibility opportunities and allows them to be part of the Club Africain des Entrepreneurs, a club of business leaders selected for their commitment and professionalism.
Focus: the African Club of Entrepreneurs
The African Club of Entrepreneurs is a pan-African organization that gathers female and male entrepreneurs who are committed to contributing to a sustainable and responsible development process in Africa.
Its mission is to plead the cause of African entrepreneurship and develop business opportunities between and for its members.
Our ranges of activity
I&P is a pioneer in impact investing in Africa. I&P Development 1 (2002-2019), I&P's founding vehicle, has enabled us to support some thirty high-impact SMEs and was a real pilot project for developing our model.
Today, I&P's model is based on four complementary lines of business, which allow us to respond to the challenges of access to financing and skills faced by African small and medium-sized enterprises. These ranges are segmented according to the maturity of the companies and the size of the financing sought.
I&P Acceleration
Scaling-up young businesses through seed-funding and/or training programs
I&P Development
Sponsoring a network of African funds to finance small companies with high potential for amounts between €50,000 and €500,000
I&P Expansion
Supporting and providing equity financing to mature SMEs and start-ups with financing between €500,000 and €5 million
I&P Ecosystems
Encouraging the emergence of entrepreneurs and investors in Africa and fostering the development of an environment conducive to their prosperity
I&P Acceleration
The African entrepreneurial landscape is still young.
Numerous projects are emerging, driven by entrepreneurs willing to contribute to meeting essential needs, and create local added value. Yet, theses projects are often informal, poorly structured and not mature enough to to access conventional financing.
I&P brings its perspective as an investor and develops acceleration programs with the support of major donors so that theses projects can find the sources of financing necessary for their development and changing of scale.
The acceleration range relies on a proven methodology based on seed-funding, trainings that combine skill-building and individualized mentoring, strategic support, and technical assistance missions.
I&P Acceleration in the Sahel, I&P Acceleration Technologies and USAID PACE are carried out by I&P Entrepreneurs and Development, a non-profit organization.
Afrique Créative, SIBC and Pionnières are coordinated by I&P Conseil.
I&P Entrepreneurs et Développement and I&P Conseil aim to encourage and support entrepreneurship in Africa. They target entrepreneurs at the earliest stages of their development as well as those still in the acceleration or incubation phase. The grant programs piloted by these two I&P’s entities are implemented for the benefit of African entrepreneurs in order to support the structuring and scaling up of their activities.
I&P Development
To scale up African private equity and support a growing number of private initiatives, I&P has designed a unique program to build investment capacity in Africa.
I&P Development aims to create, develop and sponsor some 10 impact funds in several sub-Saharan African countries, and thereby finance nearly 300 enterprises and contribute to the creation of 15,000 jobs in sub-Saharan Africa.
Theses impact funds, led by African investment professionals and mainly capitalized by African investors, can finance local businesses between €50,000 and €500,000.
Five funds have been launched to date. The network of impact funds sponsored by I&P Development shares common values, practices and a same objective: to help startups and SMEs emerge. It provides access to continuous capacity building as well as exchange and training opportunities to improve its practices and multiply its impact.
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I&P Expansion
Perceived as a land of opportunity, the African continent is increasingly attracting private investors. Nevertheless, these investors are focusing on the continent's major transactions in the most dynamic markets, South Africa and East Africa.
From the outset, I&P's mission has been to "go where others don't go", to finance start-ups, to intervene in the Fragile and Least Developed Countries of the African continent and to support the growth of small and medium-sized enterprises or the "missing link" of African economies.
To do this, I&P designs generalist or thematic SME impact funds, financed by public and private investors committed to and motivated by the impact of these SMEs on their local stakeholders.
I&P Ecosystems
The challenges of the African continent are huge: they require not only the emergence of a new generation of entrepreneurs, but also public and private intermediaries (investment teams, entrepreneurship support structures, donors) to accompany and finance them.
Capitalizing on our expertise as an investor, I&P Ecosystems increases the impact of the group's activities by providing financing, advice, training, and support to stakeholders in the African entrepreneurship ecosystem.
Our team is active in the following areas
+ Training and advocacy with public and private actors on the challenges of impact investing;
+ Studies and consulting for the design of financing tools, entrepreneurship support plans, and impact assessments.
