Emerging Capital Partners

Thomas Gibian serves as Chairman, with Hurley Doddy and Paul Maasdorp as Managing Directors leading deal execution. The investment committee operates from the firm's Washington, DC headquarters and its African offices, requiring local-market sign-off on every transaction. This structure ensures that no deal proceeds without in-country investment team approval.

ECP sources proprietary deal flow primarily through its permanent offices in Abidjan, Lagos, Nairobi, and Johannesburg. The firm's 20-plus-year operating history in these markets has built relationships with family-owned conglomerates, banking groups, and government privatization bodies that generate off-market opportunities. Fly-in competitors without local teams typically only access widely marketed auctions.

ECP invests across sub-Saharan Africa, with an emphasis on Nigeria, Côte d'Ivoire, Kenya, and South Africa. The firm also evaluates opportunities in Francophone West and Central Africa, where its Abidjan office provides direct market coverage. It avoids North African markets, where sovereign funds and Middle Eastern investors crowd out private equity returns.

ECP pursues buyout and growth capital investments, typically taking control or significant-minority positions. The firm does not participate in seed or early-stage venture rounds. It targets mature companies with proven business models, strong market positions, and opportunities for operational improvement — the classic emerging-markets private equity playbook.

Unlike many Africa-focused peers that operate from a single European or US office, ECP maintains four active investment offices on the continent alongside its Washington, DC headquarters. This dual-continent model has allowed the firm to raise capital from North American and European institutional investors while executing deals through locally embedded teams — a structure Helios Investment Partners and Actis also employ but which ECP has sustained across five fund cycles.