Apis closes Fund II at revised hard cap of $563m
Apis Partners has closed its second emerging markets-focused financial services and technology fund at the revised hard cap of $563 million. The initial target was $400 million.
LP commitments for Apis Growth Fund II came from banks, insurance companies, development finance institutions, fund-of-funds, pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, and family offices. The International Finance Corporation (IFC) said in June 2018 that it would contribute up to $25 million. The GP commitment is $13 million. Apis increased the hard cap from $500 million in response to strong demand.
The fund will make equity investments of $30-50 million, with a focus on capital-light financial services and financial technology companies across the growth markets of South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Africa. Areas of interest include payments, credit and savings, insurance, technology service providers, and capital markets, where they address large unbanked or underbanked populations.
Two investments have already closed. The fund has backed Tutuka, a global prepaid card processing business headquartered in South Africa and with a presence in Thailand, and Southeast Asia-based payments platform Coda Payments. It has also signed an agreement to invest in L&T IDF, a non-bank financial company (NBFC) focused on infrastructure refinancing in India.
Apis was founded in 2014 by Matteo Stefanel and Udayan Goyal. The two met while working at Credit Suisse but later went their separate ways, with Stefanel ending up at The Abraaj Group and Goyal establishing financial technology and investment advisory firm Anthemis. They closed Fund I at $287 million in 2017, with banks and insurance companies accounting for two-thirds of the corpus.
Asian companies in the Fund I portfolio include India-based ATM provider Electronic Payments & Services and Malaysian payment services provider GHL Systems. Greenlight Planet, a provider of financing for home solar power installations, straddles Asia and Africa. India’s Star Health & Allied Insurance was exited earlier this year when a WestBridge Capital-led consortium acquired a majority stake at a valuation of $928 million.
“We see this successful fundraising process as a clear endorsement by our investors of our deep financial services expertise, and recognition of the strong potential in growth markets financial services. This new fund will pursue our established strategy of investing in one of the most important sectors, globally and in growth markets, namely financial services,” Goyal said in a statement.
More on Fundraising
Latest News
Asian GPs slow implementation of ESG policies - survey
Asia-based private equity firms are assigning more dedicated resources to environment, social, and governance (ESG) programmes, but policy changes have slowed in the past 12 months, in part due to concerns raised internally and by LPs, according to a...
Singapore fintech start-up LXA gets $10m seed round
New Enterprise Associates (NEA) has led a USD 10m seed round for Singapore’s LXA, a financial technology start-up launched by a former Asia senior executive at The Blackstone Group.
India's InCred announces $60m round, claims unicorn status
Indian non-bank lender InCred Financial Services said it has received INR 5bn (USD 60m) at a valuation of at least USD 1bn from unnamed investors including “a global private equity fund.”
Insight leads $50m round for Australia's Roller
Insight Partners has led a USD 50m round for Australia’s Roller, a venue management software provider specializing in family fun parks.