January 1, 1996

Established one of the initial PE firms in post-apartheid South Africa

South Africa
Zephyr Management co-founded one of the first post-apartheid South African private equity strategies in 1996, Strategy: South Africa Capital. This strategy invested in consumer, service, and IT companies in South Africa that benefited from the newly enfranchised black middle class, both as customers and employees. Investments included equity interests in manufacturing, transportation, business technology services, security, retailing, media, and health care companies.

August 1999

Homex Provided Much Needed Affordable Housing in Mexico

Mexico
In August 1999, ZN Mexico, a joint venture private equity strategy between Zephyr Management and Nexxus Capital, invested $18 million in Desarrolladora Homex, SA de CV (“Homex”), a fully-integrated housing company engaged in the development and construction of single family homes in Mexico. The company’s strategy focused operations on the Mexican states in which NAFTA-led job and economic growth was to be most profound. Homex provided low-cost, first-time residences to new entrants into the formal economy, stabilizing families and neighborhoods.

December 2004

Celtel International Revolutionized Mobile Telephony in Africa

Africa
Zephyr Management was one of the first private equity investors in Africa. One of its earliest investments in its pan-African series of private equity funds was Celtel International, a private, pan-African owner and operator of mobile telecommunication networks. Founded by Mo Ibrahim, Celtel was a provider of low-cost telephony to populations of Africa. Celtel offered the largest contiguous GSM cellular network in terms of geographic coverage in sub-Saharan Africa. At the time of Zephyr fund investment in December 2004, the company had licenses to operate wireless networks in 13 African countries. It expanded greatly and merged into another cell phone operator which operates the "Airtel" brand.

December 2004

Letshego Provided Much-Needed Consumer Credit in Africa

East Africa
In December 2004, Letshego was the first investment by Zephyr’s first pan-African strategy, Strategy: Pan African Investment. At that time, Letshego provided consumer credit to formally employed individuals using a payroll deduction model, whereby loan repayments were deducted monthly by the borrower’s employer from the employee’s salary. The vast majority of Letshego’s customers were government employees. Strategy: Pan African Investment provided Letshego with growth capital and helped the company to expand into new markets, find other sources of funding for expansion, introduce new products, and restructure management incentive schemes, among other things. Letshego has grown greatly during its 20-year life and is currently operating in 11 African countries. It operates under the belief that "inclusive finance requires the provision of simple, appropriate, and affordable financial services to those who have historically been excluded from the formal financial sector."

January 1, 2012

Zephyr Peacock Launches New Fund to Support Emerging Enterprises

India
Zephyr Peacock (ZP) India provides growth capital and management support to small and mid-sized enterprises (SMEs) in India. ZP has invested in 21 small and mid-sized businesses in India. The on-the-ground team comprises experienced investment and operating professionals with strong in-depth knowledge of the underlying markets, along with extensive operational experience to guide and assist the portfolio companies. ZP’s investment strategy is built around three core aspects:

  1. FOCUS: ZP India seeks to make private equity investments targeting the fast-growing and largely underserved segment of emerging growth-stage enterprises in India.
  2. INVEST: ZP sources transactions via proprietary research in its target sectors which are Non-Bank Finance Companies, Food & Agriculture, and Infrastructure Ancillaries.
  3. BUILD: ZP seeks to add value to the portfolio companies via management support, operational assistance, and business expansion with the objective of developing the required scale and attributes for an exit.

For an in-depth look at two of our portfolio companies, see our stories on Varthana and Swarna Pragati.

January 2016

4G Capital Is Changing Lives in Kenya

Africa
Based in Nairobi, 4G Capital provides micro working capital loans and business training to informal market retailers. 4G is helping to solve the severe lack of access to credit in this large segment of the market by providing unsecured loans disbursed within 24 hours via mobile money through its scoring algorithm and network of mobile field officers. 4G also provides business training to give shop owners the tools to be able to scale their business. With its scalable technology platform, 4G seeks to serve microenterprises across the African continent.