Development finance

Climate Investor Two, the second blended finance climate financing fund launched by investment manager Climate Fund Managers, announced its first close at $675mn.

Although blended finance is on everyone’s lips, deal flow and transaction sizes dropped sharply in 2020, a new Convergence report finds. The industry tracker makes recommendations on how to achieve scale.

Invest International officially went live on October 1 with a low-key launch of its website. But the new government-backed Dutch investment institution has huge ambitions.

“We’re a place to look for early first ideas.” Ian de Cruz tells us how P4G has found a niche between development finance institutions (DFIs) and private capital.

Retail investors who want to invest in microfinance in emerging and developing countries can now do so through the Actam Impact Financial Inclusion Fund.

Some of the most rewarding impact investments are where traditional financiers still fear to tread. For an Expert View, we talked to TCX’s Per van Swaay about navigating the minefield of currency risk.

This summer Impact Investor talks to investors and entrepreneurs about how the pandemic shifted priorities. This week: Alexander Plekhanov of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development on stepping back from hierarchy.

The UK government’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) provision of a €106mn callable capital facility boosts local currency guarantor GuarantCo’s efforts to close the infrastructure financing gap in Africa and Asia.

TCX, a forex hedging boutique, helped match Lendahand crowdfunding investors with solar developers in Ghana. According to TCX this is the first time that a retail lending platform managed to extend a local currency loan.

In the slipstream of the hugely popular green bonds, social bonds are now also reaching record levels. So what makes the recently launched $177.5mn social bond ‘Financing for Healthier Lives’ special?