CDC Group (CDC), the UK’s publicly owned impact investor, has appointed two high-profile venture capitalists industry as investment committee members, as it prepares to expand its interests in the sector.
Anne Glover, CEO of Amadeus Capital Partners and Non-Executive Director of the Court of the Bank of England, will join CDC as a member of its Investment Committee. She is joined on the Committee by Nikunj Jinsi, former Global Head of Venture Capital at IFC.
Both appointees will sit on a newly formed Venture Capital Investment Committee at CDC and advise on venture capital funds and co-investment proposals.
CDC’s new venture capital strategy focuses on partnerships with VC funds across key technology hubs in Africa and south Asia. It is supplemented by its Venture Scale-up co-invest programme designed to support CDC-backed VC funds to co-invest in early-stage companies that leverage technology and innovative business models to achieve transformational impact at scale.
To date, CDC has committed about USD140 million across 11 VC funds and USD10.5 million across four early-stage co-investments. A further amount has been earmarked for additional funds and for co-investments. These include commitments to funds in Africa like TLCom, Sawari Ventures, Novastar and to funds in India like pi Ventures, Pravega Ventures, Stellaris Ventures and Chiratae Ventures. CDC will look to further expand coverage across key start-up hubs in Africa and S Asia.
Nick O’Donohoe, Chief Executive of CDC, says: “Investing in innovative early stage businesses is becoming a core part of CDC’s mission. Entrepreneurs in our markets are leveraging technology to find new ways to unlock market opportunities and increase productivity and can make essential goods and services more readily available to underserved populations in our markets.
“They also create significant new employment opportunities, delivering both attractive financial returns and exceptional development impact. Over the last year, we have been working to develop an integrated approach to how we invest in such businesses and are now in a position to further strengthen our ability to grow our portfolio of venture capital investments.”
