A new investment vehicle dubbed SDG500 has been launched by a coalition of private and public sector organisations, including United Nations entities, non-governmental organisations and a private equity.
The SDG500 is a USD$500 million investment platform dedicated to helping achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.
SDG500 will offer exposure to six different underlying funds. Each of these funds is or will be managed by impact asset manager Bamboo Capital Partners.
The funds will use debt and equity to invest at Seed, Series A and Series B stages in hundreds of businesses in emerging and frontier markets.
SDG500 aims to address the ‘missing middle’ financing gap that affects entrepreneurs in these markets, where growth is constrained by a lack of access to follow-on financing.
The funds will target businesses in the agriculture, finance, energy, education and healthcare sectors across Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean and Pacific regions.
There will also be a gender-lens focus and some of the funds will specifically invest in businesses that empower and provide jobs for women.
The funds composing the SDG500 platform each include a catalytic first loss layer designed to encourage and protect senior tranches of funding.
Initial sponsors of the catalytic layers of the funds of SDG500 include the European Union, the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States, the Governments of Luxembourg, Togo and Tunisia, CARE and the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa1.
The underlying six funds are:
1.) The ABC Fund, an impact investment vehicle targeting smallholder farmers and small and medium agribusinesses in developing countries;
2.) BUILD, a fixed-income fund aimed at early-stage enterprises in the Least Developed Countries;
3.) The CARE SheTrades Fund, a gender lens fund which will use debt and equity to invest in businesses in Asia;
4.) BLOC SmartAfrica and (5.) BLOC Latin America, venture capital funds targeting technology enterprises in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean respectively;
6. HEAL, a venture capital fund investing in healthtech businesses in emerging and frontier markets.
Jean-Philippe de Schrevel, Founder and Managing Partner at Bamboo Capital Partners commented: “The launch of SDG500 is a unique milestone for the impact investing industry. We have never seen a coalition from the private and public sector come together to achieve the SDGs on this scale
before.
“The missing middle financing gap is real, and it is suffocating early-stage enterprises which have the potential to transform some of the world’s poorest and most underdeveloped regions.
“We believe that by working together to finance and scale these businesses, we can achieve the SDGs and take another step closer to a better, more sustainable future for all.”
