Mauritian tycoon Arnaud Lagesse’s IBL Group backs 4DI Capital’s $25-million seed fund

Mfonobong Nsehe -

IBL Group, a multinational conglomerate led by Mauritian multimillionaire businessman Arnaud Lagesse, has joined forces with other investors to support the second closing of 4Di Capital’s new $25-million seed fund.

The fund, created by the South African early-stage venture capital company 4Di Capital in partnership with DotExe Ventures, with an undisclosed contribution from IBL Group through its investment vehicle, IBL Link Investments, will be used to scale and grow African startups.

“It is with great excitement that we welcome IBL Group and IBL Link Investments Ltd to our investor base,” Justin Stanford, partner at 4Di Capital, said.

He went on to state that IBL has a network of over 280 companies in 19 markets, which will be extremely beneficial as 4Di Capital continues to support the growth and development of the next cohort of highly scalable startups in the area.

IBL is a world-class, diverse Mauritian conglomerate with subsidiaries operating in the commerce, engineering, financial services, logistics, aviation and shipping, retail, seafood, and marine sectors.

In addition to serving as directors, Arnaud Lagesse and his siblings Benoit, Hugues, Jean-Pierre, Thierry, and Stephane Lagesse own a 16.8-percent joint stake in the group, or 114,369,469 shares.

The Port Louis-based diversified conglomerate reported a profit of MUR1.96 billion ($43.8 million) at the end of its 2022 fiscal year, which ended on June 30, a 1,917-percent increase over the MUR97.4 million ($2.2 million) profit earned from operations last year.

According to reports, the partnership between 4Di Capital and IBL comes at a time when venture capital is establishing itself as a promising asset class on the African continent, particularly in the rapidly evolving tech sector.

While venture capital markets in the United States, Asia, and Europe have declined in recent times, Africa remains the only continent in the world to record three-digit growth in the first quarter of 2022, with venture funding increasing by 150 percent year-on-year to a record $1.8 billion, up from $730 million in the same period in 2021.