LeapFrog Investments plans to raise $800m for its latest fund as the private-equity firm seeks stakes in African banks, insurance brokers and payment companies to tap into rising demand among low-income consumers. Overseas Private Investment Corporation (Opic), the Washington-based development financing unit of the US government, has approved an investment of as much as $200m in the fund, the buyout company’s third, said Karima Olokun-Ola, a partner at LeapFrog in London. Billionaire George Soros invested in LeapFrog’s first fund through his Soros Economic Development Fund because the financial-services market is underserved, she said. LeapFrog is betting there is greater scope for investment among companies that target Africa’s emerging consumers because they are more than four times the size of the continent’s middle class. New regulations requiring insurance companies in Kenya to hold more cash will create buyout opportunities, while the continent’s largest population in Nigeria ...
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