Liquid Intelligent Technologies provides data-centre capacity and fibre-optic connectivity across Africa. The company is pursuing expansions of its data centres and the rollout of fibre optic cable to meet rising demand for cloud and digital services. The IFC is investing $250 million to support the company’s data-centre expansions in Nigeria, Egypt, Kenya and South Africa. Company leadership (Strive Masiyiwa) said the investment will support growth plans and encourage adoption of cloud and other digital services. These plans align with IFC’s digital strategy to enable reliable, affordable connectivity across the continent. The article provides no additional operating metrics or other financial details beyond the IFC investment. Liquid Telecommunications operates in the communications and IT services sector, providing connectivity across multiple African markets. British International Investment (formerly CDC) invested to improve access to affordable and quality connectivity and to accelerate Liquid's expansion along its Cape‑to‑Cairo route and further into Central and Western Africa. The company is expanding its data centre footprint; BII made a follow‑on investment in 2020 specifically to support that data centre expansion. BII committed $40m in equity in July 2020. The investment delivers impact across East and Southern Africa and in countries including Kenya, Mauritius, Rwanda, South Africa, the United Kingdom, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The company's domicile is listed as Mauritius and the investment is recorded as active. Liquid Telecom is Africa's largest fiber-network operator, with close to 70,000 kilometres of network from Cape Town to Cairo. The company provides broadband infrastructure across the continent and is expanding its network to five new countries including Nigeria and Ethiopia, CEO Nic Rudnic said. It has received a $180 million investment fund from U.K. development finance institution CDC Group Plc, which will take a 10 percent stake. The deal shelves an early public offering of Liquid in Johannesburg, though a possible billion-dollar share sale of the wider Econet group in London remains a possibility, according to founder Strive Masiyiwa. Masiyiwa described the business as capital-intensive and said Liquid is profitable and has enough capital and funding for the next few years. Separately, the telecom group announced a $400 million fund to develop its network in Egypt over the next three years. Global technology companies such as Google and Facebook are also pursuing projects to expand internet coverage in Africa. Liquid Telecom operates as an independent data, voice and IP provider across eastern, central and southern Africa. It currently runs a fibre network spanning over 18,000 km and passing through 15 countries including South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Zambia, Uganda, and Kenya. The company is executing Fibre To The Home (FTTH) builds in Kenya, Rwanda, Zambia and Zimbabwe to provide homes and businesses with unlimited data packages and 100 megabytes per second. Liquid Telecom announced a US$150 million loan to fund further expansion of its fibre network into additional countries as part of its growth strategy. In Zimbabwe, fibre implementation will be carried out by ZOL Zimbabwe, the Liquid-owned ISP, with installations in Harare using fibre trenches and some overhead fibre. The company is continuing to expand its network footprint across the region.

Total raised

$620M

Funding rounds

4

Latest round

Equity

Latest activity

Nov 2021