The African Development Bank Group (AfDB) has approved a $15 million equity investment in RMBV North Africa Fund III, a private equity fund targeting mid-market growth companies across North Africa. The investment was jointly considered with Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP), Italy’s development finance institution, which added a $20 million equity commitment through the Growth and Resilience Platform for Africa (GRAf), bringing the combined investment to $35 million.
The fund will invest in mid-market companies across North Africa in sectors including consumer goods and services, healthcare, education, and financial services. Beyond capital, it will provide managerial expertise to the companies it backs.
GRAf is a co-investment partnership promoted by Italy and the African Development Bank, anchored in Italy’s Mattei Plan for Africa, under which Italy seeks to deepen economic cooperation and strategic partnerships with African nations and institutions. The investment underscores the Bank Group’s commitment to strengthening private sector participation, supporting the growth of scalable business, and stimulating job creation, while advancing the delivery of essential services across North Africa.
For North Africa, the partnership between the AfDB and CDP represents an increasingly important model of development finance: multilateral and bilateral institutions co-investing in private equity vehicles that target businesses operating in sectors where access to long-term growth capital has historically been limited. The fund’s focus on consumer goods, healthcare, and education reflects the reality of where employment and economic activity in the region are concentrated, particularly for the expanding young and urban populations of Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria.
The deal is also the latest expression of the Mattei Plan for Africa, the framework through which Italy is seeking to build a more structured development partnership with the continent, centred on co-investment rather than traditional aid. The GRAf platform gives CDP a vehicle to deploy that ambition in private equity, complementing Italy’s separate infrastructure and energy commitments across the continent.
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