01
Source
Proprietary deal flow from operators, founders, family offices and development finance institutions across the Great Lakes.
Now deploying — 2025 vintage
Private equity,
deal by deal.
Built for Africa.
Unicorn Capital Partners is a private equity company that invests the way the best venture capital firms do — on a deal by deal basis, alongside aligned investors, into operators across the African Great Lakes region and its hinterland.
- Capital structure
- Deal by deal
- Ticket size
- $2M–$100M
- Markets covered
- 7
- Sector verticals
- 5
Current mandate
Great Lakes Growth I
— Approach
The discipline of venture.
The scale of private equity.
02
Diligence
Deep commercial, legal and ESG diligence on the ground — not from a glossy data room. We underwrite operators, not just slides.
03
Partner
We commit capital deal by deal alongside aligned co-investors, keeping fees aligned and incentives sharp.
04
Build
Hands-on value creation: strategy, hiring, commercial introductions, governance and follow-on capital through to exit.
— Sector focus
Four verticals.
One region.
Agribusiness
From farm to fork across the Great Lakes — we back ventures that turn the region's fertile soil and rich harvests into scalable, export-ready food systems.
- Value-chain processing
- Smallholder aggregation
- Cold-chain logistics
- Regional export
Energy
Powering the Great Lakes — distributed solar, mini-grids, and generation assets that unlock productive use for industry, cold-chain and mining.
- Distributed solar
- Mini-grids
- C&I generation
- Energy for mining & cold-chain
Real Estate
Operational real estate tied to the region's growth corridors — commercial, logistics, hospitality-linked and mixed-use developments in tier-one Great Lakes cities.
- Commercial & logistics
- Hospitality-linked
- Mixed-use developments
- Tier-one city corridors
Safari Hotels
Boutique capital for high-end lodges, eco-camps and resort operators across the region's flagship safari circuits — from the Masai Mara to Zambia's rivers.
- Boutique lodge acquisitions
- Eco-lodge development
- Operator partnerships
- Tour operator platforms
Mining
Disciplined exposure to the region's critical minerals — tin, tantalum, tungsten, cobalt, copper — through compliant, ESG-led operators.
- Artisanal formalisation
- Critical minerals
- Processing & refining
- ESG & traceability
— Geography
The African Great Lakes.
Ten markets across the region — click any country to see what we look at there, or edit the note directly.
UCP Capital — Great Lakes Investment Geography
Hover a country
🇸🇸Juba
🇨🇩Kinshasa
🇺🇬Kampala
🇷🇼Kigali
🇹🇿Dodoma
🇲🇼Lilongwe
🇿🇼Harare
🇸🇿Mbabane
🇹🇿Dodoma
🇲🇼Lilongwe
🇿🇼Harare
🇸🇿Mbabane
🇧🇮Gitega
🇲🇦Rabat
🇩🇿Algiers
🇹🇳Tunis
🇱🇾Tripoli
🇪🇬Cairo
🇸🇩Khartoum
🇸🇳Dakar
🇲🇱Bamako
🇳🇪Niamey
🇳🇬Abuja
🇬🇭Accra
🇨🇮Yamoussoukro
🇱🇷Monrovia
🇸🇱Freetown
🇬🇲Banjul
🇬🇳Conakry
🇧🇫Ouagadougou
🇹🇩N'Djamena
🇨🇲Yaoundé
🇨🇫Bangui
🇬🇦Libreville
🇨🇬Brazzaville
🇪🇹Addis Ababa
🇪🇷Asmara
🇩🇯Djibouti
🇸🇴Mogadishu
🇰🇪Nairobi
🇹🇿Dodoma
🇲🇿Maputo
🇲🇼Lilongwe
🇿🇼Harare
🇿🇲Lusaka
🇦🇴Luanda
🇳🇦Windhoek
🇧🇼Gaborone
🇿🇦Pretoria
🇲🇬Antananarivo
Great Lakes HubCapital City42 countries · live coverage
— Submit a deal
Bringing something to the table?
We respond to every credible opportunity within five business days. If we can't do the deal, we'll tell you who can.
Latest news
What we're reading across the Great Lakes
Sector signals and deal-flow intelligence from across our five verticals in the region.
Updated weekly · August 2026
Mining This week
DRC cobalt exports climb 18% as formalised artisanal supply wins traceability audits
Lualaba and Kolwezi cooperatives cleared OECD-aligned audits, unlocking premium offtake terms with European battery makers.
Source: Reuters · Commodities
Safari Hotels This week
Kenya's Masai Mara posts record shoulder-season occupancy as US and EU arrivals return
Boutique lodge operators across the Mara Triangle and conservancies report 88% occupancy in November — a five-year high.
Source: The EastAfrican
Agribusiness This week
Rwanda expands maize and bean aggregation hubs to four new districts ahead of AfCFTA exports
Cold-chain rollout in Musanze, Nyagatare, Bugesera and Huye targets 240,000 smallholder farmers and regional flour markets.
Source: New Times Rwanda
Energy This week
Burundi commissions 33 MW of distributed solar at industrial parks to cut diesel dependence
Three sites in Bujumbura and Gitega now power agro-processing and cold-chain tenants under a pay-as-you-go tariff.
Source: AfDB Energy Desk
Real Estate This week
Kigali and Kinshasa mixed-use corridors attract $620M in institutional capital this quarter
African and Gulf-backed developers are underwriting grade-A office, retail and serviced apartments near new transport links.
Source: Estate Intel
06 · UCP Group — Portfolio
Introducing Toptext Scribe.
The UCP operating group also backs Toptext Scribe — an enterprise AI that turns every internal meeting, call and review into structured, multilingual intelligence. Capture, transcribe, summarize, and distribute — built for global teams that run on conversations.
01 — Capture
In-person, mobile, Zoom, Teams, Meet
02 — Transcribe
120+ languages · 99% accuracy
03 — Summarize
Decisions, actions, owners
04 — Distribute
Role-based, audit trails
LIVE BRIEF · 11:42 GMT
Q3 Great Lakes regional review
Participants: 6 · Languages: EN, FR, SW, RN
DECISION
Approve co-investment in Kigali cold-chain — $8.4M ticket alongside Acumen.
ACTION · @nadia
Send term sheet to operator counsel by Friday EOD.
RISK
FX exposure on USD ticket — hedge strategy to be drafted.