Africa’s Late Stage Investors And The Promises Ahead With Mega Money Managers

My promise for Tekedia Mini-MBA which begins Feb 5: we will have a special class on Asset Management and Private Equity with a case study of BlackRock and Bayo Ogunlesi’s GIP (recently acquired for excess of $12 billion by BlackRock) in Africa. Many have written that Mr. Ogunlesi does not have airports and other big projects as he does in Europe, Asia and America. That class will help us understand how these big players work.

As someone who has studied Bayo and Vista Equity Partners’ Robert Smith (the richest African in America), most times, they do not touch anything government-related when it comes to Africa. But behind the scene, men like Ogunlesi have invested in Africa. While many will wish for Ogunlesi to invest in Ibadan’s airport, he may not be comfortable doing so due to the Nigerian factors.

BlackRock which manages an excess of $9 trillion invested in Flutterwave, Andela, and other late stage African startups. GIP is an investor in Cellulant, Bridge International Academies Kenya, and MainOne. So, if you check, they are investing in Africa, but only focusing on private entities, avoiding public projects.

In the startup world, those late stage investors provide paths for secondaries which enable early investors to exit startups. Without them, the startup world in Africa will tank. So, as startups appeal to them, big government projects can also appeal to them, if we reform in ways that give their compliance officers confidence. 

In this piece, Tekedia explains the promises ahead and why Africa must attract these big-pocket money men and women, because they not only fund visions, they fertilize ecosystems of small investors who provide that first $10k, $15k, etc to startup founders.

More capital and expertise for local fintech startups: BlackRock and GIP have a track record of investing in and supporting innovative companies in emerging markets, especially in the fintech space. For example, BlackRock is an investor in Flutterwave, a Nigerian payment platform that recently raised $170 million at a $1 billion valuation.

GIP is an investor in Cellulant, a Nigerian digital payments company that operates in 18 African countries. With the acquisition of GIP, BlackRock will have access to more infrastructure assets and expertise that could benefit local fintech startups, such as providing connectivity, data centers, cloud services and renewable energy.

Impact of BlackRock acquisition of Global Infrastructure Partners on Fintech in Nigeria

Register for Tekedia Mini-MBA (Feb 10 - May 3, 2025), and join Prof Ndubuisi Ekekwe and our global faculty; click here.