Grace Ashiru
Kuramo Capital Management has closed investment mandates worth approximately $500 million, with the bulk of the capital coming from African pension funds and development finance institutions — a notable milestone in the push to mobilise domestic capital for the continent’s private markets.
The mandates span three vehicles: commitments to the Investment in Digital and Creative Enterprises (iDICE) initiative alongside Nigeria’s Bank of Industry; MEMA, an East African pension investment vehicle; and the Kuramo Africa Opportunity Fund IV Nigeria (KAOF IV), which is anchored by Nigerian pension funds.
The new platform consolidates African pension commitments while extending Kuramo’s existing portfolio, which includes the Wholesale Investment Impact Fund (WIIF) and Moremi Capital Management, the firm’s gender-lens investment arm. Through the Moremi Accelerator, Kuramo says it has identified 45 first-time, women-led fund managers and helped mobilise over $100 million for women-led businesses.
Founded in 2010 and headquartered in New York with offices in Nairobi and Lagos, Kuramo has catalysed more than $3.5 billion into African private equity firms and businesses over 15 years. In that time, the firm says it has backed more than 20 fund managers, anchored over 15 funds, and invested directly and indirectly in more than 200 companies — activity it links to over 500,000 jobs supported and more than three million lives impacted.
Founder and CEO Walé Adeosun framed the platform as a deliberate pivot. While crediting the Western endowments and foundations that backed the firm’s first 15 years with helping transform African private equity, he said Kuramo is now focused on organising African capital to drive faster economic growth on the continent.
Co-CEO Shaka Kariuki added that the firm’s aim is to help local pension funds diversify into alternative assets, leaning on Kuramo’s track record and regional networks to deliver returns while promoting impactful investment.
The raise is significant beyond its size. African pension funds hold hundreds of billions of dollars in assets but have historically allocated little to private equity and venture capital. A $500 million commitment led by domestic institutional investors — rather than foreign LPs — suggests that wall may be starting to crack.
