I&P (Investisseurs & Partenaires)

I&P, or Investisseurs et Partenaires, is a Paris-based impact investment firm founded by Jean-Michel Severino and Patrice Hoppenot, focused on providing growth equity and patient capital to small and medium-sized enterprises across Francophone Africa, investing in established businesses across agriculture, health, education, financial services, and enterprise technology that are generating employment, expanding access to essential services, and building the private sector foundations of sustainable development across French-speaking Sub-Saharan Africa. The firm operates a distinctive multi-fund structure that includes vehicles for direct investments in companies and co-investment alongside African fund managers through its fund-of-funds activities, positioning I&P as both a direct investor and an anchor LP for the emerging African private equity ecosystem. I&P invests with initial checks from $1 million to $7 million at Series A through growth stages in established companies with revenue and a demonstrable impact on employment and essential service delivery, reflecting a development finance ethos that blends commercial and social return objectives. The firm has backed more than 100 companies across its fund history in markets including Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire, Mali, Burkina Faso, Madagascar, Rwanda, and other Francophone African nations. The original directory notes the portfolio as various Francophone African companies without specific company names publicly disclosed. I&P plays an important role in developing Francophone Africa's private equity ecosystem, where institutional capital for growing companies is significantly scarcer than in Anglophone African markets.