African Capital Investments (ACI) and the African-focused asset manager Barak Fund Management have entered into a strategic partnership to expand their financing offerings for African SMEs.

ACI is a boutique merchant bank that helps raise equity capital for African companies, with offices in London, Dubai and Cape Town. Since being founded in 2013 it has closed over 14 individual transactions, resulting in more than US$300mn of investment into Africa.

Barak Fund Management, based in Mauritius and Johannesburg, manages a portfolio of six funds, which over the past eight years has expanded from short-term trade finance to the longer-term asset-backed lending space to fill the funding gap left my Africa’s commercial banks.

The new alliance will see the two parties co-locate in their representative offices in London and Johannesburg to collaborate on projects that can leverage Barak’s lending expertise and ACI’s equity know-how to offer a wider suite of services to their respective clients.

“ACI has built a sterling reputation in the African advisory world,” says Barak founder Jean Craven. “We want to leverage ACI’s expertise, origination capabilities and UK presence to achieve our goal of becoming a multi-billion-dollar asset manager in the next five years.”

ACI founder Rob Hersov adds that the collaboration kicks off a “new chapter in ACI’s story”.

“Barak’s track record speaks volumes,” he says. “They offer a creative approach to lending and provide African entrepreneurs with a viable and fast-moving alternative to commercial bank debt. Together, ACI and Barak will offer a suite of services that will give us an edge over the competition.”