Actis Capital

Actis was founded in 2004 as a spinout from CDC Group, the UK's development finance institution, when a 60% stake in the firm was sold to CDC managers and staff for a total consideration of £373,000. The new company was given a five-year 'umbrella' guarantee that it would continue to manage all CDC's existing overseas investments totalling US$900 million in CDC funds. According to the UK's Department for International Development, the price was agreed after a valuation by financial advisers KPMG. Under the 2004 deal that created Actis, if the company was to be sold on the open market within 10 years, 80% of the profits and proceeds would go back to the government.

In 2007, UK prime minister Gordon Brown came under scrutiny over the sell-off of Actis after it became apparent that the formerly government-owned business had made millions of pounds for its former employees.

On 1 May 2012 the Secretary of State for International Development, Andrew Mitchell, announced that the state's remaining 40% stake had been sold to Actis management for an initial £8m. The deal also included a share of future profits that had the potential to be worth over £62m.

In March 2019, Actis was named "Impact Investment Firm of the Year" at the 2018 Private Equity International Awards. The firm also placed second in the Energy Private Equity category, behind I Squared Capital.

In April 2019, following an industry-wide trend towards more transparency in impact investing, the firm launched the "Actis Impact Score", an open-source framework that seeks to consistently measure impact from investment to investment, thus permitting comparison across different asset classes or geographies, as well as tracking its evolution over the holding period.

In May 2022, Actis announced the closure of its Cape Town and Nairobi offices, with their services being taken over by their Johannesburg, Cairo and Lagos offices. As of 2024, Actis has 17 offices globally.

In March 2023, Actis announced portfolio-wide net zero targets, committing to align 60% of its total AUM with Net Zero by 2030, to have at least 50% of its AUM in 2030 to be invested in climate solutions, and that it intends for all portfolio companies to develop Board-approved Net Zero Plans within two years post investment. This followed an earlier commitment in 2022 to align 100% of its investment portfolio to Net Zero by 2050, which saw the firm become a signatory to Net Zero Asset Managers (NZAM) initiative.

In January 2024, General Atlantic agreed to acquire Actis. The acquisition finalised in October, after which Actis became General Atlantic's sustainable infrastructure arm.