Oyass Capital (Senegal) makes its first investments after its launch in 2024 by FONSIS, KfW and the World Bank with the support of Innpact

While in Senegal, the SMEs are at the core of the corporate economic landscape, two thirds of their funding needs is not fulfilled. This gap is preventing the raise of national champions and the growth of high potential SMEs, impacting negatively the development of the economy and job creation.

Oyass Capital, a $90m Senegal domiciled investment fund has been designed with FONSIS (the Sovereign Wealth Fund of Senegal for Strategic Investments) as anchor investor and thanks to capital mobilised from KfW, the World Bank and the State of Senegal, in view of filling this gap.

The Fund’s mission is to boost growth in priority sectors through the creation of national champions by providing financing instruments to high potential SMEs in Senegal that permit corporate economic advancement and greater vertical integration within the sector.

Oyass Capital ambitious objectives pivot around the following pillars:

• Leverage further investments into SMEs to boost growth and job creation.
• Create national champions within priority sectors
• Develop SME ecosystem and boost value chain development
• Introduce investment instruments to SMEs such as mezzanine financing or Islamic financing when needed alongside common equity

Oyass Capital further leverages on both local and expertise thanks to its anchor investor and on an international expertise brought by SEAF as Fund Manager. As an impact fund, Oyass Capital aims to screen its targets investees in alignment with the Senegal economic and social goals, the SDGs and the article 9 of the EU SFDR.

The Fund benefits from a dedicated technical assistance facility to support its invested SMEs with capacity building on areas such as Strategy, Human Resources, ESG matters, Governance, etc.

One year after its launch, Oyass Capital has just successfully closed its first investments for USD 4.5m (XOF 2.7bn) into 2 SMEs : Dimbaya, a major actor in the agriculture sector promoting local production and nutrition innovation and Eyone Medical , a health tech platform digitising health records for Africa.

At Innpact, we are thrilled to have worked hands in hand with FONSIS, KfW and The World Bank from the initial thoughts through the structuring, set-up and launch of this impactful local fund. We are delighted to observe the real impact on Senegalese SMEs starting to unfold with these two investments.

Congratulations to the Oyass Capital and SEAF teams for this huge milestone!

More details on Oyass Capital : https://oyass-capital.sn/