Egypt-focused private equity · Established 2015
Payment rails, school campuses, delivery hubs, seed trials and production lines. Institutional capital and governance for businesses built to outlast us — two of which we took public within four years.
Why Egypt
Egypt's strongest mid-market businesses are overwhelmingly family-owned, profitable, and financed with bank debt priced for a different decade. What is scarce is not ambition. It is equity that arrives with governance attached, and partners willing to sit in the building while it is installed.
We have invested through devaluation, reform and recovery from a single office in Zamalek — and a meaningful share of what we own was never formally for sale.
Our track record →The proof
Sarwa Capital listed in 2018. Fawry listed in 2019 and became Egypt's first technology unicorn. Both within four years of our investment — a route few managers in this market have completed once, let alone twice.
Portfolio
Payments, healthcare, logistics, education, agriculture and consumer manufacturing — every one sourced and managed from Cairo.
Payments infrastructure · 2025
Card issuing and processing for more than 200 banks and 60 fintechs across Africa and the Middle East. Acquired by a Lorax-led consortium as AfricInvest exited.
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K–12 education · 2019
Three campuses, nine schools and more than 9,000 students. Our capital funded the campus expansion rather than buying out a shareholder.
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E-commerce logistics · 2022
Last-mile delivery and fulfilment built for Egyptian e-commerce, now expanding across North and West Africa.
View →How we invest
01 — What we write
Structured around what the founder wants next: growth capital, partial liquidity, succession, or funding an acquisition. Hold period four to six years, longer where the compounding justifies it.
02 — What has to be true
You are open to audited accounts, institutional reporting and an independent board seat. Your business can meet international environmental and social standards — that is not negotiable, because our own investors require it.
03 — What we are not
We do not invest pre-revenue, and we cannot move in under eight weeks. If you would rather not change how the company is governed and reported, we are the wrong partner and it is better to know now.
04 — What arrives with the money
Our funds are backed by development finance institutions. The reporting discipline that comes with that is the same discipline an international buyer or a public listing will later demand — which is why two of our companies were ready to list by year four.
Track record
In 2015 the Egyptian-American Enterprise Fund appointed us as its asset manager in Egypt. Under that mandate we backed Fawry and Sarwa Capital, both of which listed within four years. In 2020 we closed our first independent fund — with EAEF among its investors.
EGX listing · 2019
Egypt's largest electronic payments platform, and subsequently the country's first technology unicorn.
EGX listing · 2018
Consumer finance, leasing and securitisation. Formerly Sarwa Capital.
The team
Five managing partners share investment committee authority. There are no single-signature deals.
Managing Partner
Managing Partner
Managing Partner
Managing Partner
Managing Partner
Exec. Director, Operations
Our investors
Our funds are backed by development finance institutions. That shapes what we can invest in, how portfolio companies are governed and what we report — and it is among the most useful things we bring to a business preparing for international capital.
Latest
May 2025
Backed by the IFC, EBRD and Proparco, the consortium acquires MDP as AfricInvest exits in full.
July 2024
Lorax participates in a round supporting expansion beyond Egypt.
August 2024
Lorax invests again in the consumer finance and rewards platform, alongside DisrupTech.
Get in touch
Business owners and advisers reach the investment team directly. We reply to every enquiry that meets our criteria within five working days.
Limited partners
Quarterly reports, capital account statements and capital call notices.
