African mobile network operator Afrimax Group has secured US$120m in funding to accelerate network rollouts in its sub-Saharan markets.
The investors, led by Japan’s Mitsui (TYO:8031), included Spanish private equity firm Torreal as well as existing shareholders Four G Capital, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), and the IFC African, Latin American and Caribbean Fund.
The company previously raised US$56m in November 2013, from Four G Capital, the IFC and KGC Capital.
Afrimax describes itself as “building the largest portfolio of 4G wireless broadband networks across sub-Saharan Africa”, with a licence footprint covering 12 countries and 222 million people.
Founders Jay Metcalfe (chairman), Peter Langkilde (CEO) and Rob Philpott (CFO) are all alumni of Millicom and Virgin Mobile. Among them, they also have top-level experience at operators including Celtel [which rebranded as Zain] and BellSouth.
Nobuaki Kitamori, COO of Mitsui’s IT and communication business unit, said “We are excited by the growth opportunities in sub-Saharan Africa, where Afrimax has secured one of the industry’s largest footprints of 4G licences, and plan to rapidly replicate the successful launch of Vodafone Uganda. With the support of our fellow shareholders, we look forward to building one of the region’s leading next generation [mobile network operators].”
In November 2014, Vodafone and Afrimax Group jointly announced a non-equity strategic framework agreement to cooperate and explore opportunities for partner market agreements in the sub-Saharan Africa region.
The two then launched Vodafone Uganda in February 2015 – with Afrimax running the network under the Vodafone brand – combining the deployment of new 4G networks with existing 2G and 3G infrastructure.