Capital Markets

Outsourcing firm ISON BPO gets Sh5bn funding for expansion

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iSON Group founding chairman Ramesh Awtaney said the new investment—through structured loans and equity from Gulf Capital and Africinvest—will help fast-track the planned entry into several African markets. FILE PHOTO | NMG

Kenya’s business processing and outsourcing firm iSON BPO Ltd has received Sh5.1 billion from two equity funds to power its expansion across Africa.

iSON Group founding chairman Ramesh Awtaney said the new investment—through structured loans and equity from Gulf Capital and Africinvest—will help fast-track the planned entry into several African markets.

“Gulf Capital and Africinvest bring deep industry and geography knowledge to our company that will facilitate rapid innovation enabling business transformations in emerging markets,” he said.

He said the two funds provided Sh2.55 billion apiece with part of the funds expected to be spent on acquiring shares from a minority investor.

iSON has 27 call centres in 13 sub-Saharan countries serving 425 million telecom end-users and is also present in India.

The company handles customer relationship matters for banking and insurance, retail, travel and hospitality, media and entertainment, aviation, and e-commerce sectors as well as the telecommunication industry.

Gulf Capital chief executive Karim El Solh said financiers were happy to support iSON’s expansion noting they were eyeing new investments in other successful companies planning expansion within Africa via their franchising model.

AfricInvest executive partner Hakim Khelifa said business outsourcing was a lucrative enterprise that generated quality jobs in African cities.

Gulf Capital Private Debt managing director Adam Hadidi said iSON’s growth from a single call centre operator in India to multiple country operations presented an attractive opportunity to invest in.