Helios Private Equity
Introduction
Strategic Investment in Africa: Driving Growth through Innovation and Expertise
Our private equity strategy focuses on investing in areas where African innovation, technology and demographics drive growth with resilience.
Building on over 20 years of experience, Helios combines deep sector expertise with hands-on operational management to partner with our businesses, to drive financial and ESG performance.
Delivering growth with impact
An expert team aligned to a focused strategy
Technological innovation combined with attractive African demographics are creating investment opportunities across the continent. We invest behind these trends with a laser focus on three imperatives.
We invest in high-potential businesses in four sectors where technological innovation can create value by disrupting inefficiencies or removing bottlenecks to reach Africa’s rapidly growing, tech-savvy and youthful customer base cost-effectively.
We rigorously and systematically apply three selection criteria proven to generate growth with resilience: FX-protected, non-cyclical, and capital light.
We leverage our exceptional Portfolio Operations team to drive portfolio company financial and ESG performance, supported by our extensive local and global networks and deep sector expertise.
Our 4 core investment sectors
Consumer non-discretionary
Goods and services, including food & beverage, personal care, healthcare, education to meet growing consumer demands.
Digital infrastructure
Including data centres, fiber networks, telecom towers, to underpin the technological revolution driving innovation across the continent.
Financial services & technology
Including neobanks, insurance, insurtech, payments infrastructure - harnessing technology to drive financial inclusion.
Tech-enabled business services
Including digitization tools & services, IT services, SaaS to create efficiencies to enhance productivity.
What makes us different
We are a predominantly African team who are singularly committed to our mission to generate competitive global returns and lasting impact across Africa at scale.
The private equity platform that we have built and refined since 2004 brings together deep African understanding, operational excellence and exceptional investment tools.
It is a platform that makes us particularly well-placed to capitalize on Africa’s megatrends and strengthens our position as partner of choice for global corporates and African innovators.
Private Equity Investments
In September 2024, Helios completed the acquisition of a stake in M2P Fintech (M2P), an API Infrastructure and Banking as a Service provider, to support its growth across Africa.
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In October 2023, Helios completed the acquisition of a stake in Maroc Data Centre (MDC), a carrier netural Data Centre operating in the Rabat metro area of Morocco.
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In September 2020, Helios completed the acquisition of a stake in Thunes, a market-leading payments network providing interconnectivity between payment companies and methods across emerging markets to facilitate cross-border payments. Launched in 2018 as a spin-out from TransferTo, a mobile airtime wholesale and...
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