US-based Creation Investments Capital Management LLC recently met its goal of securing commitments totaling USD 184 million for its Social Ventures Fund IV. The investors were a mix of “existing and new investors including corporate pension plans, funds of funds, insurance companies, endowments and foundations, public pension funds, and family offices.”
With approximately USD 700 million in assets under management as of September 2019, Creation Investments seeks to “serve the
Banco VisionFund Ecuador (BVE), a for-profit microfinance institution and member of VisionFund International, recently borrowed USD 7 million from the government-owned Belgian Investment Company for Developing Countries, which is also known by its Dutch acronym BIO. The funding is intended to grow BVE’s portfolio, including in underserved areas.
BVE was formed in 2016 by the transformation of the nonprofit
The CDC Group, the UK’s development finance institution, recently invested USD 15 million as part of a USD 21 million fundraising round for Indifi Technologies, a digital lender to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in India. Two US-based investors, Omidyar Network and Accel, also
The European Fund for Southeast Europe (EFSE), a microfinance investment vehicle domiciled in Luxembourg, recently announced it has lent EUR 30 million (USD 33 million) to Erste Bank Montenegro, a commercial banking member of the Austria-based Erste Group, to expand housing finance in Montenegro. Erste Bank Montenegro CEO Aleksa Lukic commented
ATEC Biodigesters International, an Australia-registered clean technology (cleantech) company that is active in Cambodia, recently accepted an unspecified amount of debt financing from US-based investor Beneficial Returns. ATEC plans to use the loan to launch a
The World Bank Group’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) recently announced it is lending GEL 100 million (USD 35 million) to the Bank of Georgia, a commercial bank owned by the UK-based Bank of Georgia Group, for on-lending to micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs). The Women Entrepreneurs Opportunity Facility, which is cosponsored by
The Asian Development Bank (ADB), a Philippines-based multilateral institution, recently approved a loan of USD 25 million to support the operations of Kashf Foundation, a provider of microfinance services in Pakistan. The loan is intended to help expand access to
Germany-based Invest in Visions (IIV) recently loaned EUR 10 million (USD 11.1 million) to Eskhata Bank, a provider of microfinance and traditional financial services in Tajikistan, in an effort to stimulate economic development in the country, including in rural areas. The investment is one of a group of loans totaling
The International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, recently partnered with two insurance companies in Cameroon to create agricultural index insurance products. These products offer payments to
The European Investment Bank (EIB), the long-term lending institution of the EU, recently pledged to loan a total of EUR 5 million (USD 5.6 million) to two related entities in the Dominican Republic in order to fund loans for renewable energy equipment and energy efficiency improvements. Fondo para el Desarollo (FONDESA), an NGO focused on educational finance, will borrow
Team members of Triple Jump, an 
impact-focused asset manager with offices in the Netherlands and Kenya, and Agora Microfinance Zambia (AMZ), a microfinance institution dedicated to serving low-income, rural households in Zambia, met for the first time at the Investors’ Fair at the 2017 SAM conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. During a speed-dating session, Triple Jump found AMZ to be an interesting prospect because of its
Alter Modus, a microlender in Montenegro, recently agreed to borrow EUR 1.5 million (USD 1.67 million) from the Green for Growth Fund (GGF), a public-private partnership based in Luxembourg, in order to boost Montenegro’s energy efficiency (EE) finance market. GGF also aims to boost Alter Modus’ expertise in EE lending by providing the microfinance institution with
During June and July, 18 microfinance institutions (MFIs) in 14 countries closed on new loans totaling the equivalent of USD 45 million from the Dual Return Vision Microfinance Funds, which are managed by C-Quadrat Asset Management. C-Quadrat, a member of Austria-based CQ Investment Group, tells MicroCapital that the MFIs have “a strong focus on
BNP Paribas, a France-based bank, recently informed MicroCapital that it has issued a loan to Madura Micro Finance of India for the first time. The bank lent INR 500 million (USD 7 million) to the Chennai-based microfinance institution (MFI), which is scheduled to repay the loan in eight
Flutterwave, a US-based business-to-business (B2B) payments service that focuses on Africa, recently began collaborating with Alipay, a payments unit of the Chinese technology conglomerate Alibaba Group, to provide digital payments from Africa to China and
Myanmar-based Yoma Bank recently agreed to lend MMK 5 billion (USD 3.32 million) to Proximity Finance, a microfinance institution (MFI) operating in Myanmar. MCE Social Capital, a US-based NGO, is funding
Juhudi Kilimo, a for-profit microfinance institution (MFI) in Kenya, recently sold an ownership stake of unspecified size for EUR 2.2 million (USD 2.4 million) to Incofin CVSO, a cooperative fund managed by Belgium-based Incofin Investment Management. Juhudi, which mainly serves rural areas, intends to use the new funding to
Schroders, a UK-based asset manager with GBP 444 billion (USD 538 billion) in assets under management, recently agreed to acquire a majority holding in BlueOrchard Finance, a Switzerland-based firm with USD 3.5 billion in