UGFS and TLG Capital announced the first close of the Empower Fund initiated by the CDC Tunisia.
The fund is mandated to invest in SMEs, particularly those with strong potential to scale across the region and the rest of Africa. The fund will use debt and mezzanine structures with strong equity upsides embedded with the aim of achieving equity-like returns but with a lower risk profile.
Financial and social returns will be considered hand in hand, and the fund, alongside being Gender 2X compliant, will seek to address UN Sustainable Development Goals 1, 3, 4, 7, 8 and 9.
Both TLG and UGFS are longstanding investors in the region and the two managers bring complimentary skillsets – with TLG having a pan-African outlook alongside strong structuring and legal emphasis and with UGFS having offices on the ground in Tunis and providing pipeline and general North African access.
TLG Capital invests in small and medium enterprises in sub-Saharan Africa with the belief that commercial and social returns go together. The firm has invested in over 30 deals to date and exited over 20.
UGFS, a subsidiary of Kuwait Projects Company (KIPCO), manages TND 150M in assets and has launched 14 funds and funded more than 120 projects to date, solely focused on the Tunisian market.
