FINCA International launches FINCA Ventures, an impact investing initiative

Providing patient capital and support to early-stage social enterprises serving the bottom of the pyramid

WASHINGTON, Aug. 20, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- FINCA International announced the launch of FINCA Ventures, an impact investing platform that provides patient capital and pre- and post-investment support to help early-stage social enterprises achieve growth and scale. Through FINCA Ventures, FINCA International supports innovative solutions to poverty in energy, water/sanitation/hygiene (WASH), education, health, agriculture and financial technology (fintech). FINCA Ventures aims to accelerate the growth of social enterprises developing goods that align with FINCA's charitable mission, thus fostering a market for extremely affordable, high-quality and life-improving products and services for the bottom of the pyramid.

"For more than three decades, FINCA has given small loans to micro-entrepreneurs around the world," said Rupert Scofield, President and CEO of FINCA International. "As a pioneer in microfinance, FINCA International created a sustainable and scalable social enterprise. Because of this, FINCA Ventures is uniquely positioned to help social enterprises grow faster and smarter and reach a bottom of the pyramid market more effectively and responsibly."

Over the past 18 months, FINCA Ventures has invested in six social enterprises that are serving emerging market customers, including:

• Amped Innovation: Designs solar home systems and DC-powered productive use appliances to help those living under $4 per day grow their wallets. 
• BioLite: Designs and manufactures clean-burning, electricity-generating cookstoves and solar home systems for off-grid households. 
• Eneza Education: Develops hardware-agnostic digital educational curriculums that work on basic feature phones, smartphones and tablets for K-12 students and beyond.
• Good Nature Agro: Partners with smallholder farmers to improve their productivity through soil-enriching legume farming and links them to a high-value legume seed market to grow farmer incomes.
• Ignitia: Sends hyper-local, highly accurate tropical weather forecasts to smallholder farmers via SMS to reduce risk and loss for better harvests.
• Sanivation: Provides waste-to-energy sanitation services to local governments and refugee camps, turning fecal sludge into environmentally-friendly fuel alternatives to charcoal and firewood.

"FINCA International is going beyond general financial inclusion and looking more deeply at access to basic services and the role finance can play," said Ami Dalal, Vice President and Managing Director for FINCA Ventures. "Combined, FINCA's work in microfinance and social enterprise generates greater resilience and opportunity, and helps low-income families achieve a better standard of living."