Phatisa, a Mauritius-based private equity fund manager, announced that it has reached a first close of $86 million for its third food and agriculture fund, Phatisa Food Fund 3 (PFF3). The fund is targeting up to $300 million in commitments over the next 12 months from institutional investors and development finance institutions.
The initial close received support from several development finance institutions, including British International Investment (BII), FinDev Canada, Norfund, Swedfund, and the International Finance Corporation (IFC). PFF3 aims to invest in companies across Africa’s food value chain, focusing on agricultural inputs like seeds, crop protection products, fertilisers, and agri-tech solutions, as well as downstream segments such as processing, cold storage, logistics, distribution, and retail. The fund will also support services linked to food production and marketing.
Alongside the fund launch, Phatisa signed its first investment agreement with Zaad Group, a company specializing in seeds and crop protection products in Africa. The firm highlighted the continent’s continued reliance on food imports, currently costing an estimated $43 billion annually and projected to reach $110 billion by 2030. Structural challenges such as post-harvest losses, supply chain inefficiencies, and limited financing for small and medium-sized enterprises continue to constrain productivity and resilience in African food systems. PFF3 aims to address these issues and strengthen the continent’s food supply chain.
PFF3 builds on Phatisa’s previous experience managing two earlier funds. The first fund is approaching the end of its investment cycle, while the second has returned approximately 40% of invested capital through recent exits and maintains a diversified portfolio, providing a stable operational and financial foundation for new investments.
