Zebu Investment Partners

Zebu Investment Partners

Zebu Investment Partners (ZIP) was established to invest across the food value chain in Africa. Managing Partner Brian Frimpong leads a strategy that links agricultural production, processing and distribution, with the conviction that food security is the foundation of Africa’s economic transformation. The firm is registered in Mauritius and maintains offices in Accra, Johannesburg, and Mapou. The firm’s sophomore vehicle, Africa Food Security LP, targets growth equity and buyout positions in vertically integrated food businesses. In a series of linked transactions, the fund first backed AMC Trade Finance, a structured trade-finance institution providing bespoke facilities to agricultural counterparties, and subsequently executed an equity buyout of the founding shareholders. A second platform investment acquired Elgin Free Range Chickens Holdings, a South African poultry producer spanning farming, processing, and branded distribution. ZIP’s geographic footprint spans Ghana, South Africa, and Mauritius, with a sourcing network that extends across the continent’s agricultural hubs. ZIP manages a disclosed $134 million in assets, deploying capital through its African Food Security fund series with an emphasis on operational control and value-chain integration. The team operates from three offices — Accra, Sandton, and Mapou — and has completed multiple platform investments in food production and related trade finance. In a video commentary tied to the Oxford Private Markets Investments Programme, Managing Partner Dennis Matangira analyzed the Covid-19 pandemic’s disruption of African food supply chains, reinforcing the firm’s food-security thesis. ZIP’s structure as a dedicated food-value-chain fund in Africa — rather than a generalist PE platform — shapes its operational footprint. The firm’s ability to move from structured trade finance into full equity buyouts of suppliers and producers within a single fund vehicle creates an unusual concentration of risk and control across the food chain. By housing both credit and equity exposure under a unified food-security mandate, ZIP’s architecture differs materially from peers that treat agriculture as one sector allocation among many.