This report is part of a four-part series exploring investment trends and opportunities in Africa’s cold storage industry. Drawing on a decade of private capital activity, the series unpacks market size, segmentation, key drivers, and investment theses across cold storage, transport, and integrated platforms. It is designed to support investors, operators, and fund managers in identifying and evaluating opportunities in the sector.
Platform investments: Trends & opportunities in African cold storage
A notable investment trend in African cold chain has been large private equity and infrastructure investors eschewing one-off investments in favour of developing dedicated pan-African cold storage platforms. The platform approach involves acquiring or developing multiple interconnected cold storage assets under one unified operational and management structure, typically with the goal of expanding across regions. This model often mirrors a buy-and-build strategy, where the fund manager first acquires an anchor asset and then drives both organic growth (through operational expansion or greenfield development) and inorganic growth (through follow-on
