During the same period, Kenya was the only country with significant levels of PE investment in manufacturing, education and renewable energy. A sector such as education can attract both PE and VC, thus catering to businesses along very different points on the maturity curve. For example, Fanisi Capital invested in Hillcrest Investments Limited, a well-established secondary education company that operates schools catering to students from the rising middle class. Another prominent education deal, this time focused on the bottom of the pyramid, was the US$30 million raised by the startup <mark>Bridge International Academies</mark><sup>18</sup> <mark>from Novastar Ventures, the IFC, and the CDC, as well as international VC and impact firms such as New Enterprise Associates, the Gates Foundation, and the Omidyar Network.</mark> Over the 2007-14 period, 70 of the 79 deals recorded in East Africa had tickets of US$10 million or less, and were concentrated in agribusiness, FMCG, ICT and health care. This deal size is the focus of Kenyabased fund managers such as Grassroots Business Fund, Acumen Fund, Fanisi Venture Capital, Kibo Capital Partners, Novastar Ventures, Progression Capital Africa and TBL Mirror Fund. As Table 9 shows below, Kenya has the greatest number of deals at the larger end of the spectrum (i.e. US$10 million-US$50 million), which are primarily in the FMCG, financial services, manufacturing and energy sectors. Over the 2007-14 period, more than three times as many deals in this range took place in Kenya than in all other East Africa markets combined. This is the target range for managers such as AfricInvest, Ascent Capital Partners, Catalyst Principal Partners and Phatisa Fund Managers.

**Table 8: East Africa Deal Volumes by Ticket Size and Geography (2007-2014)**

||**<US$1M**|**US$1-5M**|**US$5-10M**|**US$10-50M**|
|---|---|---|---|---|
|**Kenya**|**10**|**28**|**5**|**7**|
|Tanzania|0|6|5|1|
|Ethiopia|0|2|3|1|
|Uganda|1|6|1|0|
|Rwanda|1|2|0|0|
|**Total**|**12**|**44**|**14**|**9**|

_Source: KPMG/EAVCA_ The largest deals that have closed in East Africa have taken place in Kenya's oil and gas sector. The KPMG/EAVCA survey did not log any deals over US$50 million, but in 2015 there was one such deal in East Africa that was recorded by EMPEA: Helios Investment Partners made a US$100 million growth equity investment into Africa Oil Corp, headquartered in Vancouver, Canada, but with operations in Kenya. The largest known deal in East Africa since 2008 also involved Kenya's oil and gas sector, when Warburg Pincus made a US$600 million growth equity investment in Delonex, a global company based in London, but with a significant East Africa and Kenya presence. Kenyan fund managers that are capable of investing in excess of US$50 million per transaction include Actis Capital, ECP, and Helios Investment Partners. They tend to back large businesses with existing operations in East Africa or they invest in businesses with aspirations to expand into multiple markets in the region.

Although PE investors in Kenya and East Africa usually acquire minority equity stakes, they also employ debt instruments and quasi-equity securities. As shown in Table 10 below, most fund managers utilize a

> 18 <mark>Bridge International Academies, which provides inexpensive education to children by leveraging technology, was founded in 2008.  It now serves more than 100,000 children.  Moreover, the company has expanded to Uganda, Nigeria, Liberia, and India.</mark>

17