International Finance Corporation

International Finance Corporation (IFC), established in 1956 and headquartered in Washington, District of Columbia, is the private equity and venture capital arm of The World Bank Group. It focuses on fostering sustainable economic growth in developing countries by financing private sector investments and mobilizing capital in international financial markets. IFC provides a wide range of financial products, including loans, equity, quasi-equity, and advisory services, targeting sectors such as agriculture, forestry, financial services, education, healthcare, infrastructure, manufacturing, retail, tourism, and technology. The organization aims to support businesses and financial institutions in emerging markets to create jobs, improve corporate governance, and enhance environmental performance. IFC typically invests between $1 million and $100 million, often taking minority stakes but preferring majority ownership in its portfolio companies. It does not engage directly in the management of its investments and usually exits through domestic stock markets or other arrangements after several years. By focusing on initiatives that benefit underserved communities, IFC contributes to local economic development and improves the quality of life for people in developing regions.

Wale Ayeni

Acting Global Head, Disruptive Technologies and Venture Capital Investments

Paulo De Bolle

Global Director

Andi Dervishi

Chief Investment Officer and Global Head, Fintech, ePayments and New Finance

Makhtar Diop

Managing Director

Imad N. Fakhoury

IFC Regional Director South Asia

Allen Forlemu

Regional Industry Director

Mary Porter Peschka

Director

Leila Search

Investment Professional

Oumar Seydi

IFC Regional Director, Africa

Past deals in Communications Infrastructure

WIOCC

Venture Round in 2022
WIOCC specializes in high-capacity connectivity solutions, linking Africa with global financial and commercial centers. Recognized as a key player in the wholesale market, it caters to carriers, mobile operators, and internet service providers by offering customized bandwidth packages tailored to meet diverse customer needs. With a comprehensive range of services, including global connectivity, carrier IP transit, and colocation, WIOCC ensures built-in redundancy in its network, safeguarding traffic and enhancing reliability. Operating across more than 30 African countries, the company positions itself as a pivotal provider of managed connectivity services for cloud operators and content providers, effectively supporting the growing demand for fixed and mobile broadband in Africa's evolving markets.

Telecom Argentina

Post in 2022
Telecom Argentina S.A. (Telecom) is the mother company of a leading telecommunications group that is engaged in providing fixed-line public telecommunication services, mobile voice and data services, international long-distance services, data transmission and Internet in Argentina. In addition, it owns a wireless operation in Paraguay. The Company's subsidiaries include Telecom Personal, Telecom Argentina USA Inc., Micro Sistemas, and Nucleo S.A. (in Paraguay).

Team Telecom Armenia

Debt Financing in 2022
Team Telecom Armenia provides internet, digital TV, and mobile fixed telephony services. Team Telecom Armenia also provides GSM 900/1800, 3G (UMTS) և 4G (LTE) standard mobile connection, fixed telephony, IPTV և OTT digital television services.

WIOCC

Debt Financing in 2021
WIOCC specializes in high-capacity connectivity solutions, linking Africa with global financial and commercial centers. Recognized as a key player in the wholesale market, it caters to carriers, mobile operators, and internet service providers by offering customized bandwidth packages tailored to meet diverse customer needs. With a comprehensive range of services, including global connectivity, carrier IP transit, and colocation, WIOCC ensures built-in redundancy in its network, safeguarding traffic and enhancing reliability. Operating across more than 30 African countries, the company positions itself as a pivotal provider of managed connectivity services for cloud operators and content providers, effectively supporting the growing demand for fixed and mobile broadband in Africa's evolving markets.

Eastcastle Infrastructure

Private Equity Round in 2021
Eastcastle Infrastructure is a company focused on the telecommunications tower sector in Africa. It develops telecommunications towers to enhance connectivity for consumers and communities across the continent. The company designs telecom sites based on specific coverage and capacity requirements, offering solutions such as co-location, in-building coverage, and managed services. These offerings allow clients to share existing sites, ensure indoor coverage in large buildings, and effectively address their telecommunications infrastructure needs.

Liquid Intelligent Technologies

Debt Financing in 2021
Liquid Telecom is an independent data, voice, and IP provider that commits to build a digital future. Liquid Telecom has built Africa’s largest single fibre network, currently stretching over 18,000km across Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, DRC, Lesotho and South Africa. The award-winning Pan-African fibre network covers Africa’s fastest growing economies, where no fixed network has existed before.
MEP Infrastructure Developers Limited is an Indian infrastructure company established in 2002 and headquartered in Mumbai. It specializes in the construction, operation, and maintenance of road infrastructure, with a focus on toll collection. The company operates in multiple segments, including toll management, operation and maintenance, and construction services. MEP Infrastructure Developers generates most of its revenue from toll collection and related repairs and maintenance. Additionally, the company assists clients in implementing and operating toll systems, offering services that include the installation of electronic toll systems, cash collection processes, communication networks, and intelligent transportation solutions.

Africa's Talking

Series A in 2017
Africa's Talking Ltd. is an information technology company based in Nairobi, Kenya, founded in 2010 by Eston Kimani and Samuel Gikandi. The firm specializes in providing communication solutions that enhance connectivity across Africa, focusing on mobile messaging services. It offers a range of services including bulk SMS, short codes, premium SMS, USSD, MMS, and customized mobile messaging solutions tailored for individuals, businesses, and developers. The company provides tools such as a mini-API for data access and SMSVoices.com, a platform for sharing information via SMS and online posts. By integrating reliable two-way SMS, voice, and USSD functionality, Africa's Talking enables users to streamline their mobile communication processes, thus supporting a burgeoning entrepreneurial ecosystem across the continent.

CSquared

Venture Round in 2017
CSquared is a company based in Nairobi, Kenya, that specializes in building and operating metro fiber and Wi-Fi networks. Founded in 2013 from Google's Project Link, CSquared aims to assist local Internet service providers and mobile network operators in expanding their reach and improving connectivity for homeowners, small businesses, and mobile users in Uganda and Ghana. By focusing on wholesale broadband infrastructure services, CSquared enables these providers to deliver Wi-Fi and broadband services more efficiently and at lower costs through shared metro fiber infrastructure.

Helios Towers Africa

Private Equity Round in 2014
Helios Towers Africa has operations in Ghana, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo and a sister company in Nigeria. The number of mobile subscribers in Africa has increased from just 16 million people in 2000 to over 500 million today. Based on these growth levels and without an increase in the sharing of telecoms tower facilities, the number of towers in Africa will need to double from the current number of 75,000, a significant environmental impact.

DiViNetworks

Venture Round in 2013
DiViNetworks is a global provider of affordable IP bandwidth expansion for network operators and service providers. The company's virtual capacity technology enables its customers to expand data capacity using software-based solution, at any location worldwide.

Altobridge

Venture Round in 2013
Altobridge wireless network solutions provide a lower capital and lower operating cost option for the delivery of voice and mobile broadband services, enabling mobile network operators to connect unconnected communities and enterprises at minimum cost. Central to this lie a series of patented and patent-pending technologies namely; Data at the Edge™ (data optimisation in wireless networks), Local Connectivity™ (local voice switching) and Split Architecture™ (transmission and power optimisation), all of which – individually and combined – drive down communications delivery costs for mobile network operators, by reducing backhaul and power consumption costs.

Connectiva Systems

Venture Round in 2008
Connectiva Systems, Inc. specializes in subscriber data monetization, offering a range of analytics solutions tailored for mobile, cable, wireline, media, utility, and business services sectors worldwide. Its flagship products include the Capitalyze Data Monetization Suite, which serves as an integrated framework for extracting value from business data, and Capitalyze Fraud Management, designed to detect fraudulent activities by analyzing customer usage patterns. The company also provides Capitalyze Revenue Assurance to prevent revenue leakage throughout the revenue chain, alongside Capitalyze Customer Experience Analytics that enhances the subscriber experience across various channels and devices. Additionally, ConnectivaCloud offers a blend of software-as-a-service, consulting, and managed services to achieve targeted business outcomes. Established in 2001 and headquartered in New York, Connectiva Systems has expanded its presence with offices in several global cities, including Bonn, Dubai, and London, enabling it to deliver comprehensive solutions and support services to its clients.

NeoPhotonics

Series C in 2006
NeoPhotonics offers a complete line of both active and passive optical components for every network market segment: FTTH/Access, Datacom, Storage Area Networks, Metro and Long Haul networks. NeoPhotonics' transceivers are compliant with industry standard MSAs, are available in GBIC, SFF, SFP, XFP and other configurations, and serve a variety of reaches, applications and data-rates from 155MBps to 10GBps. NeoPhotonics' advanced silica Planar Lightwave Circuit (PLC) integrated optical modules and subsystems are critical parts in access FTTH networks and in metro and long-haul DWDM networks. For FTTH, NeoPhotonics manufactures integrated splitters in high volume and FTTH BiDi and TriPlexer transceivers, Other products include AWGs, Athermal AWGs, VOA Multiplexers, EDFAs and ROADM Modules. NeoPhotonics' manufactures MEMS-based Variable Optical Attenuators and Dynamic Channel Equalizers

Convergence Communications

Private Equity Round in 2000
Convergence Communications, Inc. (CCI) is a leading facilities-based provider of managed data network services, high-speed Internet access and broadband solutions to enterprise customers in over 150 cities in Mexico and Central America.
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