.jpg)
The African Venture Capital Association (AVCA) and Cambridge Associates have agreed to a strategic collaboration to provide extensive, independent African private equity and venture capital data to industry participants.
Under the agreement, AVCA will give its members access to aggregate African private equity (PE) and venture capital (VC) benchmark data and statistics. Cambridge Associates, a global provider of independent research and investment advice, has been advising institutional and private clients on alternative assets since the 1970s. The firm derives its various PE and VC benchmarks from the financial information in its proprietary database of institutional-quality PE and VC funds, which is one of the largest such data repositories in the world.
Ralph Jaeger, senior research consultant and co-head of international private equity and venture capital research at Cambridge Associates, said, "We are delighted at the opportunity to work with AVCA to broaden and deepen the industry's awareness of private equity and venture capital in Africa. Cambridge Associates continuously seeks to expand our manager research coverage to create benchmarks that can serve as valuable tools for the industry. Assessing the attractiveness of private equity and venture capital in Africa will allow investors to better identify local and regional investment opportunities."
"AVCA is absolutely committed to promoting the dissemination of robust, reliable data on private equity and venture capital in Africa," said Michelle Kathryn Essomé, Chief Executive Officer of AVCA. "We are thrilled to collaborate with Cambridge Associates, as they have demonstrated the necessary technical expertise, knowledge of the continent, and global track record to meet this objective. I am confident that this will help promote additional transparency and independent benchmarking to the benefit of all industry stakeholders."
Cambridge Associates and AVCA will issue quarterly performance data which will include African PE and VC industry returns compared to other market indices. Returns data will be aggregated to protect the confidentiality of individual funds and their underlying portfolio investments. Vintage year returns and aggregate portfolio returns by industry will be reported where the sample size is sufficiently robust to allow disclosure without compromising confidentiality.
Cambridge Associates will provide the data to AVCA as a service to its members and the global PE and VC industry overall. Cambridge Associates works closely to grow its coverage of the emerging markets PE and VC industries with the international development institutions that are major limited partners in these markets, and also partners with the Emerging Markets Private Equity Association (EMPEA).
