eco.business Fund wins IMPACT Award 2020 for Fund of the Year in category Private Debt
The eco.business Fund has been awarded “Fund of the Year: Private Debt” by leading sustainable finance magazine, Environmental Finance, for their inaugural Impact Awards 2020. An advisory panel of industry experts recognized the work being done by the fund to contribute to biodiversity conservation, the sustainable use of natural resources, and climate change mitigation and adaptation in Latin America, the Caribbean and sub-Saharan Africa.
Focusing exclusively on impact investing, the Impact Awards honor institutions committed to investing in sustainability, highlighting best practices across all asset classes around the world. The eco.business Fund’s innovative structure uses a public-private partnership model that brings together international financial institutions, development institutions, and private investors to contribute to sustainable impact. It mobilizes private funding by leveraging the public investments as a risk mitigation mechanism. To date, the fund has raised over USD 100 million in private capital. This funding is then on-lent to local financial institutions in Latin America, the Caribbean, and sub-Saharan Africa which finance sustainable business practices. Currently, the eco.business Fund has more than USD 400 million in assets under management.
The award also recognizes the fund’s approach to impact monitoring. Prior to any investment, the fund undertakes a thorough screening of potential investees to ensure they meet the fund’s requirements for financial return as well as developmental impact. In order to monitor and assess its progress along its specially developed Theory of Change, the fund has defined a set of key performance indicators that track its contribution towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals, in alignment with the Operating Principles of Impact Management.
Dr. Jens Mackensen, Chairperson of the Board of Directors of the eco.business Fund, stated: “We are incredibly honored to receive this award. It is clear the appetite for impact investing is only growing and this award is recognition of the work being done to promote sustainable development. We are proud of the work we do – taking a comprehensive approach to conservation finance involves not only improving the sustainability of individual practices, but also strengthening the systems that enable these practices to generate long-term impact and systemic change.”
Read about the eco.business Fund’s selection, here.
For more about the IMPACT Awards 2020, visit: www.environmental-finance.com/content/awards/impact-awards-2020
About the eco.business Fund
The eco.business Fund aims to promote business and consumption practices that contribute to biodiversity conservation, to the sustainable use of natural resources, and to mitigate climate change and adapt to its impacts in Latin America, the Caribbean, and sub-Saharan Africa. By providing financing for business practices that conserve nature and foster biodiversity, the fund seeks investments with both environmental and financial returns. The eco.business Fund provides financing through three avenues: local financial institutions that are committed to the fund’s mission and which have the capacity to reach its target group; directly to its target group (i.e. companies and producers); and in the case of sub-Saharan Africa, to real sector intermediaries. The fund supports sustainable operations in the sectors of agriculture, fishery (including aquaculture), forestry and tourism. Target beneficiaries are those that hold an eligible sustainability certification or those taking out a loan to make eligible sustainable investments in their operations
An impact investment fund advised by Finance in Motion, the eco.business Fund was initiated by Germany’s KfW Development Bank and Conservation International with financial support from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). The sub-fund for Latin America and the Caribbean has received further support from the European Commission. The sub-fund’s additional investor base comprises IDB Invest, a member of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Group, the U.K. government’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Dutch development bank FMO, Austrian development bank OeEB, and institutional investors such as ASN Bank, Calvert Impact Capital, and Raiffeisen Bank International. Finance in Motion, a leading impact investing company, is also an investor.
Operating together with each of the two sub-funds, are two development facilities that provide high-impact technical assistance to investment partners and final borrowers.
For more information please visit www.ecobusiness.fund and follow us on Twitter @ecobusinessfund.