British International Investment (BII), the UK’s development finance institution (DFI) and impact investor, has announced new commitments to Algebra Ventures and Endure Capital.
The capital will support Algebra Ventures’ second fund following the success of Fund I, which included market-leading companies such as Khazna, Mozare3 and Shift EV.
BII also anchors Endure Capital’s most recent fund Endure21, which has backed high-impact companies such as Brimore, Pylon and Cassbana.
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The DFI has also invested in MaxAB, a prominent B2B e-commerce platform in North Africa. The funding will support the creation of 4,000 jobs and facilitate MaxAB’s expansion across Egypt and Morocco, enabling the company to reach an additional 73,000 micro-retailers across the region.
In addition, the investment will help address supply-chain inefficiencies by implementing financial solutions that increase access to finance and facilitate payments for small-scale and low-income retailers.
Overall, BII said that it is planing to invest $100m in Egyptian startups over its current strategy period.
The DFI also reaffirmed its commitment to strengthen its partnership with Egypt and increase climate finance to support the country’s green growth.
Nick O’Donohoe, BII CEO, said: “These investments form a critical part of BII’s new five-year strategy and reflect our local priorities to continuously explore opportunities to back local venture capital fund managers and direct our capital toward stimulating entrepreneurship and innovation among native businesses in impactful sectors.”
“We believe local investors are ideal partners to identify the next generation of high-potential entrepreneurs whose unique solutions help solve development challenges, including climate solutions. I am particularly excited to welcome many of our VC partners at tomorrow’s Innovation for Impact summit. This is an event that further demonstrates BII’s commitment to help foster partnerships within the VC ecosystem and across markets, and help mobilise more capital to back market-shaping companies that are making societies more productive, sustainable and inclusive.”
As the UK’s main vehicle for climate finance investments and the largest bilateral DFI in Africa, BII is committed to broadening its partnership with the Egyptian Government to develop a blueprint addressing Climate Adaptation and Renewable Energy (CARE) for powering energy-intensive water infrastructure.
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The DFI will also continue to work towards unlocking other climate innovation strategies, including in clean energy solutions such as solar and wind power, green hydrogen, and water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) systems, to improve livelihoods, health and nutrition across Egypt.
BII has commitments of over $760m in Egypt and its direct and indirect investments in the country span several critical sectors such as clean infrastructure and energy, healthcare, manufacturing, and financial services.
Its investments currently support more than 50 businesses and over 32,000 jobs across the country.
