About
Who we are
Rama Sycamore is an investment strategy and transaction firm focused on African private markets. We act for investors and companies. We do not invest our own capital, so our only interest is getting the deal right.
Our New York office manages investor relationships and client mandates. Our Nairobi team, built together with our local strategic partners, is the largest and most active part of the firm. It handles deal origination, due diligence, management interviews, credit file review and the local verification that no database can replace.
The firm began in New York, working with institutional clients on alternative investments, private credit and special situations. Our move into Kenya and the wider region was not about diversification. We believe many of the best risk-adjusted returns in private markets over the coming decade will go to those who source deals directly, not to those who screen what is already on offer.
How we're different
Most Africa-focused research firms sell a subscription and a quarterly report. Most intermediaries offer a few relationships and call it a network. We do the work of both, and we do it from inside the market.
We source.
We are in the room for data room reviews, capital structure design, term sheet negotiations, restructurings and management diligence. We meet the founders, visit the sites and test the numbers ourselves. We don't read about these deals afterwards.
We translate, in more than one sense.
Our team works in English, Swahili and French, but we also speak the language of numbers and global markets. We turn shifts in interest rates, the dollar and commodity prices into what they mean locally, and turn local realities into the terms a New York or London investment committee expects.
We cover the whole capital stack.
Private credit, private equity, venture capital and special situations sit under one roof. In African markets these categories overlap far more than in developed ones. A firm that sees only one of them misses the connections, and often the best opportunity in the structure.
We're paid for results.
Our fees are aligned with outcomes: transactions that close and relationships that perform, not reports delivered. When our clients do well, so do we. That keeps our interests aligned with yours from the first conversation through closing and beyond.
Where we sit
New York for capital. Nairobi for deal flow. Partner relationships in Lagos, Accra, Johannesburg and Cairo extend our regional reach.
We are building the firm we needed when we were trying to underwrite an East African credit fund from a desk in Manhattan.
