US hedge fund manager and philanthropist George Soros has linked up with two other powerful political and financial figures to back the roll out of mobile telephone masts in Africa, in one of the world’s largest venture capital deals.

Soros has made his first public backing of a non-US deal through his family's private equity partnership, Soros Strategic Partners. He linked up with Madeleine Albright, the 64th Secretary of State of the US, who runs emerging markets private equity firm Albright Capital Management, and Jacob Rothschild, part of the Anglo-French banking dynasty and who runs the listed fund RIT Capital Partners.