- Mawingu has raised $15 million to expand its network across East Africa.
- Habari is an Internet Service Provider (ISP) based in Arusha, Tanzania.
- Mawingu is now East Africa’s largest ISP dedicated to the rural and peri-urban market.
- Mawingu is also focused on positively impacting 1,000,000 East Africans by 2028.
Internet Service Provider (ISP), Mawingu, has today announced the acquisition of Habari, an Arusha-based ISP with operations across 7 regions in Tanzania. Habari has more than 25 years of experience delivering Internet and ICT solutions to rural households and businesses across Tanzania. This acquisition will rapidly accelerate Mawingu’s vision of opening opportunities through enhanced digital connectivity across East Africa in areas that have traditionally not been given priority due to the high capital cost and logistical complexities involved in ensuring a stable, reliable, and affordable service.
Mawingu has raised $15 million of debt and equity financing to enable this expansion into East Africa. Existing investors, InfraCo Africa, part of the Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG), and Dutch Entrepreneurial Development Bank FMO, have invested an additional $4 million, enabling Mawingu to secure $11 million of long-term senior debt from the Africa Go Green Fund (“AGG”), managed by Cygnum Capital. This acquisition will enable the company to replicate its wins in Kenya, into Tanzania and East Africa. The primary objective is to scale Mawingu’s affordable home Internet proposition to underserved communities in East Africa by acquiring and growing ISPs in the target markets.
Mawingu’s Chief Executive Officer, Farouk Ramji said:
“Today marks an incredibly important day for the African telecommunications market. Mawingu has grown from a start-up to an established Kenyan telco player and now through the acquisition of Habari, a Tanzanian ISP, to expand both its footprint and impact in the East Africa region. Mawingu and Habari share the same values, strong financial metrics, and the same dedication to connecting the rural and peri-urban market. This acquisition, along with an additional $15 million of financing, will enable Mawingu to deliver its value proposition of affordable Internet connectivity to homes in Tanzania that has only connected 300,000 out of 14,000,000 homes.
Mr. Ramji continues:
“Mawingu has created overwhelming successes in its Kenyan business, and we believe the Habari acquisition will provide a robust foundation from which to replicate and scale our successes in Tanzania and beyond. We are excited to be one-step closer to positively impacting 1,000,000 East Africans by 2028.”
Internet access has been shown to deliver benefits for education, employment, and income, as well as promoting wider economic development.[i] However, in Kenya and Tanzania, rural customers tend to be unserved or underserved by existing broadband provision and access costs can be prohibitively high. To address this ‘digital gap,’ Mawingu builds, owns, and operates sustainable networks which can be deployed in challenging rural and peri-urban environments. The Habari acquisition will enable Mawingu to enter the Tanzanian market, however, Mawingu’s ambition does not stop there. The company aims to deliver meaningful connectivity to communities across the entire East Africa region through a disciplined ‘buy-and-build’ strategy. The identification and acquisition of successful ISPs will rapidly broaden the scale of Mawingu’s impact, enabling the company to open opportunities for 1,000,000 people across East Africa by 2028.
Laurène Aigrain, Managing Director of Africa Go Green Fund, said:
“We are thrilled to support an ISP that is not only expanding internet access to remote communities but doing so with sustainability at its core. This investment aligns perfectly with Africa Go Green’s mission to back climate-friendly solutions that drive real change. This investment underscores our commitment to a climate-resilient Africa, where connectivity and sustainability go hand-in-hand to support economic growth and environmental stewardship.”
PIDG’s Head of Investment Management for InfraCo, Claire Jarratt, said:
“Through its dedicated investment arm, InfraCo Africa is proud to support the further expansion of Mawingu’s offering in the region. PIDG is committed to unlocking the development potential of digital connectivity on the continent, and Mawingu’s growth – underpinned by a commitment to affordability and climate change mitigation – is a great example of how, with the right support, an innovative business can scale with a view to attracting further private sector finance into the region’s rural Internet sector.”
Marieke Roestenberg, Manager of FMO’s Ventures Program, stated:
“We are excited to support Mawingu’s acquisition of Habari as a first step in their international expansion strategy to extend their offering of affordable Internet access to the broader East Africa region. Internet connectivity is a crucial and powerful enabler for social and economic development and access to digital services is still lagging on the African continent, especially in rural and peri-urban areas. We are proud of the scaling trajectory that Mawingu’s inclusive business model has demonstrated in Kenya and are confident the company will be able to replicate and further strengthen its proposition internationally.”
ENDS
Mawingu began as a rural Internet Service Provider (ISP) in 2012, below the foothills of Mount Kenya in Nanyuki, offering meaningful Internet connectivity by building sustainable, flexible infrastructure in underserved regions. Having connected more than 20,000 homes and businesses across 30 counties, Mawingu is now the largest ISP in Kenya catering solely towards the rural and peri-urban markets in the country. Offering a series of shared Internet packages for homes and small businesses, as well as dedicated connections and services for large enterprises, Mawingu seeks to democratise access to knowledge, commerce, entertainment, and social connections for all. Its ability to deliver the Internet into rural areas is primarily driven by its use of wireless, fibre, and smart green-energy technology, making it possible to adapt to the changing terrain demands and market conditions. It has a network transmission fabric comprised of 175 towers (base stations), which are backhauled directly to dedicated fibre trunks and/or high-capacity microwave links with diversity and high levels of redundancy built into the architecture. Mawingu is now focused on positively impacting 1,000,000 East Africans by 2028. Please visit www.mawingu.co to learn more about Mawingu.
Africa Go Green (AGG) is designed to support activities that mitigate GHG emissions in Africa. The fund provides debt financing to businesses and projects across the spaces of industrial energy efficiency, green buildings, clean transport, and green appliances. AGG was established by KfW and has received funding commitments from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (“BMZ”) through KfW, in addition to funding commitments from the African Development Bank (and in its own capacity as the implementing entity for SEFA and the Clean Technology Fund (“CTF”)), the International Finance Corporation (“IFC”), Nordic Development Fund (“NDF”), British International Investment (“BII”) and Calvert Impact Capital. The fund’s current committed capital is at USD 166 million.
Cygnum Capital Group (Formerly Lion’s Head Global Partners) is an investment bank and asset manager operating across frontier and emerging markets. Founded in 2008, Cygnum Capital is a global provider of tailored and innovative financial solutions to meet its clients’ diverse needs.
Cygnum Capital uses long-term relationships, networks and local market understanding to deliver a best-in-class service. With offices in London, Nairobi, Lagos, Dubai, and Amsterdam, Cygnum Capital’s dynamic team of 80 finance professionals provide deep sectoral expertise, a broad product offering, an asset management platform and the ability to leverage synergies between our corporate finance, asset management and advisory activities.
Cygnum Capital Asset Management manages six pioneering funds: five debt funds including (i) the African Local Currency Bond Fund (“ALCBF”), a ground-breaking investment vehicle established to support local currency capital markets, (ii) the Off-Grid Energy Access Fund (“OGEF”) which supports companies in off-grid energy such as SHS and small- medium mini-grids, (iii) Facility for Energy Inclusion (“FEI”) which support companies that provide a range of renewable energy solutions such as medium-large mini- grids, C&I and IPP with a maximum capacity of 25 MW, (iv) AfricaGoGreen (“AGG”) Fund which supports companies combating climate change by reducing the use of fossil fuels through new technologies and that increase energy efficiency, (v) Africa Agriculture Trade Investment Fund (“AATIF”), which supports companies in the agriculture space with the aim of enhancing efficiency in agricultural value chains across the continent; and a VC private equity fund (vi) E3 Low Carbon Economy Fund for Africa (“E3 LCEF”) which invests in climate-smart services, digital connectivity & Applications, low-carbon productivity enablers. Cygnum Capital Asset Management has over USD 1.1 billion in assets under management with investments in more than 34 African countries.
The Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG) is an innovative infrastructure project developer and investor which mobilises private investment in sustainable and inclusive infrastructure in sub-Saharan Africa and south and south-east Asia. PIDG investments promote socio-economic development within a just transition to net zero emissions, combat poverty and contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). PIDG delivers its ambition in line with its values of pioneering, partnership, safety, inclusivity, and urgency. PIDG offers Technical Assistance for upstream, early-stage activities and concessional capital; its project development arm – which includes InfraCo Africa and InfraCo Asia – invests in early-stage project development and project and corporate equity. PIDG credit solutions include EAIF (the Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund), one of the first and more successful blended debt funds in low-income markets; GuarantCo, its guarantee arm that provides credit enhancement and local currency solutions to de-risk projects; and a growing portfolio of local credit enhancement facilities, which unlocks domestic institutional capital for infrastructure financing. Since 2002, PIDG has supported 233 infrastructure projects to financial close, which provided an estimated 228 million people with access to new or improved infrastructure. PIDG is funded by the governments of the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Australia, Sweden, Global Affairs Canada, Germany, and the IFC. www.pidg.org
FMO is the Dutch entrepreneurial development bank. As a leading impact investor, FMO supports sustainable private sector growth in developing countries and emerging markets by investing in ambitious projects and entrepreneurs. FMO believes that a strong private sector leads to economic and social development and has a 50+ year proven track-record in empowering entrepreneurs to make local economies more inclusive, productive, resilient and sustainable. FMO focuses on three sectors that have high development impact: Agribusiness, Food & Water, Energy, and Financial Institutions. With a total committed portfolio of EUR ~13 billion spanning over 85 countries, FMO is one of the larger bilateral private sector development banks globally. For more information: please visit www.fmo.nl
Media Contact:
Mawingu Networks
[i] Digital Connectivity: The Benefits of Inclusive Internet Access – USGLC
