by Hasnat Aslam -

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Aavishkaar India Fund VI Nets $130m for MSMEs Addressing Climate Change, Agtech, Fintech – Anchored by Public Funding from Domestic, European Sources

Aavishkaar Capital, a subsidiary of India’s Aavishkaar Group, recently completed the first close of its Aavishkaar India Fund VI with commitments totaling INR 10 billion (USD 130 million) to invest mainly in micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs). In particular, Sushma Kaushik, a partner at Aavishkaar Capital, said that the fund aims to

by Hasnat Aslam -

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Kinara Capital Raises $50m in Equity from Nuveen, ASN Microkredietfonds to Boost Lending to MSMEs in India

India’s Kinara Capital recently raised INR 3.8 billion (USD 50 million) in equity from the Global Impact Fund of US-based Nuveen, which led the investment round, and ASN Microkredietfonds, which is advised by the Netherlands’ Triple Jump, to boost Kinara’s lending to micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in India. According to Kinara Founder and CEO Hardika Shah

by Hasnat Aslam -

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Louis Dreyfus Company Borrowing $100m from ADB to On-lend to Small-scale Farmers to Boost Climate Resilience, COVID-19 Recovery

The Asian Development Bank (ADB), a multilateral institution based in the Philippines, recently agreed to lend USD 100 million to Louis Dreyfus Company (LDC), a Netherlands-based firm active in agriculture, food processing and shipping. LDC plans to use the funds to finance “coffee, cotton and rice inventories” for 50,000 smallholder farmers who supply the firm’s operations in India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Thailand and Vietnam. Among the goals of the project are to

by Hasnat Aslam -

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: ADA to Promote Financial Inclusion in Niger via Improved Product Design, Supervision, Funding Framework 

Appui au Développement Autonome (ADA), an NGO based in Luxembourg that supports microfinance institutions (MFIs) in low- and middle-income countries, recently entered into a contract with Luxembourg’s Directorate of Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Affairs with the goal of creating jobs and otherwise reducing

by Hasnat Aslam -

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Impact Asset Management Loans $11m from Dual Return Microfinance Funds to MFIs in East Timor, Ecuador, Kosovo, Nicaragua

Impact Asset Management (I-AM), a member of the Austria-based C-Quadrat Investment Group, recently disbursed loans from Vision Microfinance and Vision Microfinance Local Currency, the two sub-funds of the Dual Return Fund family, that total the equivalent of

by Hasnat Aslam -

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: SIG Venture Capital Leads $210m Investment in Fintech Voyager of the Philippines

Voyager Innovations, a Philippine provider of digital financial services tools such as Fintq, PayMaya and Smart Padala, recently secured an investment package totaling USD 210 million. The fresh capital is slated for developing the company’s “digital banking venture and other services like cryptocurrency and micro-investments.” Voyager was established in

by Hasnat Aslam -

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Bix, FMO Lending $10m to C-Quest Capital to Expand Usage of Clean Cookstoves in Sub-Saharan Africa

Nederlandse Financierings-Maatschappij voor Ontwikkelingslanden (FMO), a Dutch public-private partnership, is lending USD 6.4 million to C-Quest Capital, a US-based investor in projects that reduce the environmental impacts of energy production and usage in low- and middle-income countries. At the same time, Bix Capital, a Dutch provider of debt financing to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to boost

by Hasnat Aslam -

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Microfinance Lender KixiCrédito to Boost E-services in Angola with Support from IFC

The International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, recently announced a partnership with KixiCrédito, an Angolan microcredit company, to strengthen KixiCrédito’s “delivery of digital financial services to individuals and micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) across the country.” The plan includes

by Hasnat Aslam -

MICROFINANCE EVENT: 24th MFC Annual Conference: Microfinance Investing Through Uncertainty; June 29-30, 2022; Istanbul, Turkey

The conference is slated to cover investment opportunities and other strategies for addressing “gender, green finance and technological challenges” related to inclusive finance in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The event features seminars with titles such as

by Sheen Gupta -

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: PPro Acquires Alpha Fintech to Boost Payment Infrastructure for Financial Services Providers

PPro, a digital payments infrastructure firm based in the UK, recently announced its acquisition of Alpha Fintech, an Ireland-based financial technology (fintech) firm. PPro helps financial services providers accept payments through third-party platforms such as China-based Alipay and US-based PayPal. Among the goals of the deal is

by Sheen Gupta -

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: EBRD Moves to Block Russia, Belarus from Funding, Technical Assistance; Boost Financing in Ukraine

In response to hostilities in Ukraine, the Board of Directors of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), a UK-based multilateral development finance institution, recently proposed to the institution’s Board of Governors that it cut off assistance to Russia and Belarus, both of which are EBRD members. EBRD has outstanding investments of about EUR 900 million (USD 980 million) in each country as of January 2022. EBRD also is considering participating in

by Sheen Gupta -

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Scott Nathan Takes Helm as CEO of DFC, Major Funder of Microfinance in Low-, Middle-income Countries

Scott Nathan recently was confirmed by the US Senate to serve as CEO of the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), which partners with “the private sector in the developing world to improve livelihoods and address global challenges like climate change, pandemic threats and persistent economic disparities.” Mr Nathan has worked in

by Sheen Gupta -

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: M&G Acquiring Majority Stake in Impact Investment Firm responsAbility

M&G, a UK-based holding company seeking “to help our customers invest for a more sustainable future for the planet and society,” recently moved to acquire 90 percent of responsAbility Investments of Switzerland. ResponsAbility invests in low- and middle-income countries with the aim of increasing financial inclusion, supporting agriculture deemed sustainable and reducing the effects of climate change. The transaction is subject to regulatory approval, and M&G is expected to acquire

by the MicroCapital Team -

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Incofin Investment Management Names Buysens, Peetermans Co-CEOs

The Belgian impact investing firm Incofin Investment Management announced today that it has promoted two of its senior staff members to lead the company as co-CEOs: Paul Buysens, who joined Incofin in 2018 as its COO, and Geert Peetermans, who has 20 years of service as

by the MicroCapital Team -

MEDIA OF THE MONTH: Vineet Rai of Aavishkaar on Impact Investing in India

In this 23-minute video, Fintech.tv’s Kavita Gupta interviews Vineet Rai, the Chair of Aavishkaar Group, an impact investor with offices in India and Kenya that manages assets valued at USD 1 billion.

This post is part of an occasional series from MicroCapital pointing you to great media on microfinance and other forms of impact investing. Enjoy!

Do you know that MicroCapital publishes the MicroCapital Monitor newspaper each month? Find out more at https://www.microcapital.org/products-page/.

by the MicroCapital Team -

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: CERISE, SPTF Invite Microfinance Institutions to Join Client Protection Pathway

Two NGOs, Comité d’Echange, de Réflexion et sur les Systèmes d’Epargne-Crédit (CERISE) of France and the US-based Social Performance Task Force (SPTF), recently announced the Client Protection Pathway, a free service through which financial service providers (FSPs) may get support and recognition for improving the ways they serve clients. The first step in the pathway is to agree that “Our organization has

by the MicroCapital Team -

SPECIAL REPORT: Shafiqual Haque Choudhury: A Practical Visionary

Shafiqual Shafiqual Haque ChoudhuryHaque Choudhury was born into a landowning family in what was then East Pakistan. Just after he graduated as a sociologist from Dhaka University, a brutal civil war in 1971 ended in the emergence of his new country, Bangladesh.

Wanting to do something about the devastating post-war poverty and underdevelopment, Shafiq joined an overseas charity that had come to Dhaka after the war. But the fishing co-operatives that he helped to form were all too often controlled by their wealthier members, and he took the Maoist view that the poor needed to confront these local elites more directly. With funds from sympathetic international donors, he founded the Association for Social Advancement (ASA) in 1978.

ASA formed groups of working men in the villages, trained them in night schools to “recognise the sources of their oppression” and urged them to carry out “social actions” like work and rent strikes as well as withholding repayments due to moneylenders. The plan was to federate the groups at local, then at district and finally at national levels, with the ultimate goal of creating a government that reflected the needs of its poorest citizens.

It didn’t work. Social actions were few and