Ascent Rift Valley Fund

At Ascent we feel the most pressing and compelling issue facing Africa is the unacceptably high cost of living in many extremely poor countries. Competition in the "missing middle" is so low that businesses make extremely high margins and profits.

This situation of high margins and lower levels of business sophistication presents a rare business opportunity. Businesses in this “missing middle” often lack the capital to grow effectively but even more importantly they often lack the business structures and partnerships to allow them to reach their full potential.

This is where we, at Ascent, feel our understanding of the markets and our operational experience in SMEs can play a vital role in taking these businesses to the next level and hence catalyzing the economies of these countries while providing investors with market returns.

The Ascent Rift Valley Fund invests in fast growing SMEs in Uganda, Ethiopia and Kenya.

Financial description

Ascent Capital believes there is a dramatic investment opportunity in frontier markets where Private Equity is a new concept. Few private equity investments have been made in Ethiopia, Uganda, Burundi, Tanzania, Rwanda or South Sudan. This means there are many highly promising opportunities which are very fairly priced due to a lack of competition. Ascent will focus on large minority stakes as entrepreneurs in this region and company sizes do not want to give up control. This means Ascent must prove its value added capabilities and be even more closely aligned with the owners.
Ascent Capital has a unique operational focus based on the previous experience and success of its three partners who have all been involved in multiple successes in operationally creating and turning around East Africa businesses. The operational focus will target revamping the finance function, dramatically strengthening the HR function which is the core of successful scaleability. Also assistance will be provided in creating internal controls, product development, expansion planning and marketing execution. Exits will be prioritized from pre-investment screening by targeting entrepreneurs who are most highly aligned with Ascent Capital's preferred exit strategy.