Coffee with: Richard Okello, Sango Capital’s co-founder and CEO: EnterpriseAM sat down with Richard Okello (LinkedIn), CEO and co-founder of the Africa-focused investment management firm Sango Capital, to discuss the firm’s expanding footprint in Egypt and the country’s private equity ecosystem. As Sango steps up its local exposure, we talked through what ties its investments together, how LPs size up Egypt against other African markets, and the future of Egyptian investments in Africa. Edited excerpts from our conversation:

EnterpriseAM: Sango Capital has a growing portfolio in Egypt, with companies like EGIC,

Money Fellows, and Kazyon. How would you describe the connecting thread between these investments, and what drew you to this market in the first place?

Richard Okello: Our investments in Egypt are tied together through three overarching investment themes. The first is the consumer, as African consumers’ wallets are larger than official figures suggest, because most of it is cashbased and underreported. In Egypt, this is true for retail to financial services, fintech, healthcare, and private education, among others.

The second investment theme is food. Urbanization is accelerating in Cairo and other cities, which creates an entire value chain that needs to deliver food efficiently. We’re focused on companies that enable scale, improve operational efficiency and customer service, and boost the distribution of food and related items.

And the third theme is technology and how it relates to the two other themes and supports our approach to investing and working with companies.

E: From the vantage point of being a pan-African firm, what do you think differentiates Egypt from other key African markets?

RO: We’ve brought LPs to Egypt several times, and the feedback is consistent — that they see the country as a market with depth. This is due to its large population and strong consumption levels, which only compare to a few other African countries like Nigeria. It also offers breadth, with many sectors being far from saturation or price perfection like in more mature markets such as South Africa.

The entrepreneurial culture also sets Egypt apart, resulting in a strong pipeline of founders eager to prove themselves and scale inside and outside the country while creating more actionable investment openings.

The country’s proximity to the Gulf gives it another competitive edge, which helps drive liquidity, exits, and capital inflows. It also has well-established ties with Europe, which supports the tech sector through talent mobility and cross-border compatibility.

E: How do you see Egypt’s role evolving within the pan-African private equity ecosystem over the next five to ten years?

RO: Five years from now, we expect to see more Egyptian companies scaling across Africa in private equity, venture capital, and tech. Egypt is moving beyond being just an investment destination; it’s becoming a hub for regional expansion. We’re already seeing more exits and success stories, which encourages more capital to flow into the market. Over the next decade, I expect Egypt to contribute in a pivotal manner to shaping the private equity and venture capital ecosystem across Africa.

E: At a time when global VC funding is slowing, what do you think has helped keep the Egyptian ecosystem healthy?

RO: First, funding in Egypt has remained strong, with data from 1H 2025 showing that VC investment nearly doubled compared to the same period last year.

The second factor is that most of the recent capital comes from the Middle East, especially the UAE and Saudi Arabia, where investors understand Egypt’s tech environment and are comfortable deploying larger amounts. That speaks of funding sustainability.

Third, funding is shifting toward later stages — series A and B — with bigger checks going to companies showing real momentum. This supports a move from single breakout stories to a broader pipeline of potential unicorns.

Finally, cross-border M&A activity in the MENA region is strong, with Egyptian firms expanding across Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and into select West, East, or Southern African markets, while foreign startups acquire Egyptian assets. Egyptian VC funds are also investing across West and East Africa, with this outward-inward flow reinforcing resilience and positioning Egypt as an anchor market rather than just an inward-focused market.

E: Are there specific lessons you’ve learned from your investment experience in Egypt?

RO: The main lesson is that the strongest performance consistently comes from partnering with excellent people. Excellence looks different across teams, but common traits include delivering on commitments, combining experience with conviction, being comfortable acting counter-cyclically, and treating people well. This holds true across private equity,

co-investments, and tech transactions.

E: Expanding Egyptian companies into other African markets can be tricky. What are the main obstacles they face, and what advice would you give them?

RO: Egyptian companies have a major advantage in being bold, but not reckless. They also benefit from cultural similarities with Anglophone Africa, Uganda, Kenya, Ghana, and even Nigeria, which reduces friction. Francophone Africa is more challenging, but much of sub-Saharan Africa feels familiar in terms of business culture.

The biggest obstacle is choosing the wrong counterparty. Companies often enter a market, partner with the wrong local operator, trip on execution, and leave — not because their product is weak but because the partner was not suitable. The firms that succeed are those connected to reliable, high-quality local partners, which allows them to scale rapidly.

E: The African private equity landscape is seeing more secondaries and structured liquidity options. What are the reasons behind this emergence, and how is that playing out in Egypt?

RO: Secondaries are becoming increasingly important as investors and fund managers seek liquidity in a market where traditional exits, like IPOs or strategic sales, remain limited. Some funds or investors require returns sooner than their portfolios’ timelines allow, driving trades through secondary sales, structured liquidity solutions, or continuation vehicles.

Global dynamics are also fueling the trend. Changes in the approach and available capital from concentrated providers, such as European DFIs, combined with rising interest rates and a broader slowdown in fundraising, mean that a significant share of private equity managers cannot raise new funds without generating liquidity from existing funds.

In Egypt, secondaries provide multiple flexible routes to investors. They allow GPs to return funds to investors, sometimes at a discount, without waiting for IPOs or sales, providing long-term investors with faster liquidity gains and enabling the redeployment of capital. Meanwhile, new investors can also access positions with shorter holding periods, bridging the gap for those unwilling to commit to the typical 10-year fund cycle.

E: Interest rates in Egypt are relatively high. How does that impact private credit transactions and financing structures?

RO: Private credit in Egypt remains limited compared with other African markets, largely due to the current high interest rate environment, with the country still stabilizing after the EGP’s flotation and the surge in inflation. However, as inflation eases and interest rates gradually fall, private credit could fill a financing gap for companies that cannot access term debt from banks or are unwilling to sell equity at current valuations.

USD-denominated private credit already works in other high-interest markets, like Nigeria, where companies earning in USD can secure financing at manageable rates. Similarly, as confidence grows in Egypt’s currency and rates decline, private credit is expected to expand, providing a flexible funding option for growth-stage companies.

E: Looking ahead, which sectors are catching your eye for near-term investments and why?

RO: Digital finance, healthcare, and consumer-facing tech are particularly exciting. They show strong adoption trends, scalable business models, and the potential for a meaningful impact. In financial services, for example, digital payment platforms are bridging gaps for SMEs and unbanked populations. Meanwhile, in healthcare, telemedicine and diagnostics are addressing persistent gaps in access.