Private equity firm Apis Partners has crossed the $1bn threshold in portfolio realisations across its first two funds, providing a rare injection of liquidity into an African tech ecosystem that has been starved of major exits.

The London-headquartered firm, which focuses on financial infrastructure and technology, reached the mark in Q1 2026 following two major strategic sales: the acquisition of South African payments startup iKhokha by Nedbank, and the sale of Francophone microfinance network Baobab to Egypt’s Beltone Holding.

Achieving this in a macro environment defined by cautious capital and depressed valuations underscores a growing trend in African fintech: the shift away from VC-to-VC secondary rounds in favour of strategic acquisitions by legacy financial institutions.

Reverse-Engineering Exits

Across its Fund I and Fund II, Apis has fully or partially realised 14 out of 21 investments, predominantly through sales to strategic buyers rather than public listings. The firm has distributed Fund I proceeds within its 10-year lifecycle and has already returned over $400m to Fund II investors — a 2019 vintage that originally raised $563m.

The key to this liquidity rate lies in an active, pre-emptive approach to M&A.

“Our team’s ability to identify, support, and successfully exit transformative businesses, often by engaging with buyers before we invest, continues to be key to Apis’ approach,” noted Matteo Stefanel, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Apis.

This strategy involves engineering disciplined “buy-and-build” roll-ups that make portfolio companies irresistible to incumbent banks looking to fast-track their tech capabilities.

Deal Breakdown: The $94m iKhokha Acquisition

In August 2025, South African banking giant Nedbank acquired Durban-based iKhokha for R1.65bn ($94m) in an all-cash transaction. The deal allowed early backers, including Apis Partners, Crossfin Holdings, and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), to execute a full exit.

For Nedbank, the acquisition was a fast-track ticket to acquire a nimble player in the historically underserved SME sector. For Apis, it was the culmination of a clear consolidation strategy. During its investment period, Apis backed the merger of iKhokha with Sureswipe and Innervation to build South Africa’s largest independent payments platform.

iKhokha by the numbers:

• Merchants: Serves over 20,000 SME and enterprise merchants.
• Volume: Processes over ZAR 20 billion ($1.1bn) in annual payment volumes.
• Capital: Has distributed more than ZAR 3 billion in working capital to entrepreneurs.

Beltone’s €197.6m Pan-African Play

In February 2026, Apis pushed its realisations past the $1bn mark following the finalisation of Baobab Group’s sale to Cairo-based Beltone Holding.

Executed through Beltone Capital, the €197.6m ($235.9m) deal gives the Egyptian financial conglomerate an immediate footprint across seven African markets: Nigeria, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Mali, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Madagascar. Apis Partners and Abler Nordic fully exited their positions.

Beltone, historically an Egyptian brokerage, has spent the last 18 months repositioning itself as a technology-led financial conglomerate. The Baobab acquisition is a direct bet on microfinance digitisation and the underbanked Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprise (MSME) sector.

Baobab by the numbers:

• Customer Base: 1.6 million clients across its African footprint.
• Loan Book: €848.8 million under management.
• Digitisation: As of late 2025, approximately 50% of Baobab’s loans were processed through digital platforms using automated credit scoring.

Nigeria remains the centrepiece of this expansion. Having bought out Alitheia Capital and Goodwell Investments in 2025 to consolidate its Nigerian operations, Baobab — now backed by Beltone’s balance sheet — plans to scale from 38 to over 100 branches in the country.

The Apis milestone highlights a broader structural shift in African tech. With foreign venture capital retreating, local and regional legacy players are stepping in to acquire mature, cash-generating fintechs.