Our story
From the founding vision of the West African Development Bank (BOAD) in 1995 to the launch of Fonds Cauris IV in 2026, Cauris Management has become a leading private equity player financing high-potential SMEs and industrial SMEs across the WAEMU zone.
Cauris Management is a pioneer of private equity in French-speaking West Africa. Its journey, which began in 1995 at the initiative of a regional development institution, gradually evolved into an autonomous entrepreneurial adventure, driven by a locally rooted and institutionally recognised management team.
Four decades after its creation, the company continues to pursue the purpose that justified its founding: mobilising patient capital to support high-potential African SMEs and industrial SMEs, combining financial rigour, local proximity and active operational support.
1995 - 1997: An institutional birth
The story begins in 1995, when the West African Development Bank gives rise to Cauris Investissement, a pioneering initiative intended to structure a private equity vehicle dedicated to financing companies in the WAEMU zone. At a time when private equity is still in its infancy in French-speaking Africa, the creation of Cauris Investissement meets a strategic need: providing the region with a long-term financing tool suited to SMEs and industrial SMEs, then largely dependent on conventional bank lending.
Two years later, in 1997, the management team creates Cauris Management with a clear ambition: to bring deep sector expertise, lead selective equity investments and support regional entrepreneurs over the long term. From the outset, the company positions itself as an independent player, both rooted in local economic realities and aligned with the best international private equity standards.
2005 - 2010: Building a regional signature
In 2005, Cauris Management takes a decisive step with the launch of the Cauris Croissance fund, the firm’s first investment vehicle dedicated to financing the growth of regional SMEs. This inaugural fund marks the shift from institutional investment activity to dedicated fund management, mobilising capital from regional and international investors around a clear thesis: supporting high-potential African companies towards sector leadership.
2010 is a second pivotal year, doubly structuring. On the one hand, the management team now holds 100% of the company’s capital: this entrepreneurial independence gives it complete strategic freedom and lastingly aligns the interests of the managers with those of investors. On the other hand, the launch of the Cauris Croissance II fund confirms the company’s ability to retain its institutional partners and broaden its scope, now extended to all the WAEMU economies.
2017: Diversification and financial innovation
2017 marks a step of strategic innovation with the launch of Yeelen Financial Fund, a vehicle dedicated to financing African financial institutions. With this fund, Cauris Management broadens its scope beyond industrial and commercial SMEs to address a sector essential to the depth of the regional market: the financial institutions that irrigate the real economy.
This move reflects a long-held conviction: there is no sustainable growth for African companies without a solid financial system, able to provide them with the resources and services suited to their development trajectories. This diversification has enabled the company to build recognised expertise in analysing banking models, insurance companies and microfinance institutions in the region.
2026: A new generation begins
With the launch of Fonds Cauris IV in 2026, the company begins the fifth cycle of an uninterrupted entrepreneurial history. This new vehicle follows the methodological continuity of previous generations – selectivity, operational support and sustainable value creation – while integrating the contemporary challenges of African private equity: measurable impact, strengthened governance, sector transitions and accelerating the digitalisation of the companies it supports.
Fonds Cauris IV confirms the company’s positioning as one of the most active and experienced managers in the WAEMU zone, able to mobilise both the trust of long-standing institutional investors and that of a new generation of regional and international partners.
More than three decades after its creation, the company combines local roots, investment discipline and sector commitment around three fundamental pillars that shape its identity.
A benchmark manager in the SME segment in the WAEMU zone, operating from Lome and Abidjan. Five generations of generalist funds, representing cumulative assets of more than €204 million, reflect the trust of leading regional and international institutional investors.
With more than thirty years of experience, the company shows an average net IRR above 15% on divested funds. Venture capital and growth capital combine to support SMEs towards regional and then pan-African leadership. To date, 52 investments have been made and 47 exits successfully completed.
A founding member of the African Venture Capital Association (AVCA) and of the Ivorian Association of Capital Investors (A2IC), a partner of the BRVM for the SME segment. A lead investor in co-investments alongside Equator, Phoenix or Africinvest.
Beyond the figures and the funds, the story of Cauris Management is above all that of the entrepreneurs it has supported, the companies it has transformed and the African markets it has lastingly structured. This collective journey continues to grow richer every day, with the projects, leaders and partners who choose the company as a long-term strategic partner.