Private equity firm Ascent Capital has raised $80 million for its Ascent Rift Valley Fund, exceeding the initial $60 million target that it set at the launch of the East Africa fund in February 2014, Business Daily reported.

Ascent is one of several private equity firms that have entered the African market in recent years, seeking to take advantage of swift growth rates and expanding populations.

The PE firm said it raised the funds from foreign investors and local pension funds including Kenya Power Pension Fund, Nation Media Pension fund, CDC of the UK, FMO from the Netherlands, NorFund from Norway and Austrais OeEB.

The Ascent Rift Valley Fund, which was launched with a $40 million capital, invests between $2 million and $10 million in companies that target Africa’s growing consumer market.

“We are mainly interested in manufacturing companies whose products could be distributed to the majority of the population. We are trying to identify promising companies,” Michael Mebaselassie, Ascent Capital’s representative in Ethiopia, told The Reporter earlier this year.

With its fund domiciled in Mauritius, the investment firm has office in Kenya, Uganda and Ethiopia.

In February this year, it made its first investment worth $2.5 million in an Ethiopian medical diagnostic laboratory company Medpharm Holding Africa, which Reuters reported earlier in the year was worth a 50 percent stake.

In made its second investment in a family-owned Ugandan mobile money firm, Chims Africa, that operates 130 MTN Mobile Money agencies.

Ascent plans to invest in two more companies before the close of this year, Business Daily reported.

“We are at an advanced stage of closing two more deals and we are looking to announce these by the close of the year,” said Ascent managing partner David Owino.