Development finance

BlackRock, the world’s biggest asset manager, has raised more than $250mn for its flagship ‘blended finance’ climate fund.

Confidence in the blended finance approaches pioneered over the last decade by companies such as Finance in Motion (FIM) is growing. FIM managing director Sylvia Wisniwski shares her experience with us.

This summer Impact Investor talks to investors and entrepreneurs about how the pandemic changed their priorities. This week: Mike Debelak of Inclusive Business Sweden.

A $1bn initiative from two powerful philanthropic foundations aims to catalyse investment in distributed renewable energy (DRE) to inject greater momentum in slow market development. We spoke to both foundations to explain their bold move.

No need to reinvent the wheel – in The Expert View impact investing pros share their lessons learned. Nico Blaauw tells us how the pandemic changed fundraising practices at Goodwell Investments.

More than two years after its launch the Nasira risk-sharing facility of FMO, the Dutch development bank, expanded its remit to take in entrepreneurs affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Nick O’Donohoe, chief executive officer of CDC Group, the UK’s development finance institution, talks to Impact Investor about why he’s still committed to Africa.

No need to reinvent the wheel: in our regular column ‘The expert’ impact investing pros share their lessons from the field. This week, Michiel Hillen of EMSA on how to invest for impact in African companies.

With around 600 million Africans without access to the electricity grid, the market for off-grid home solar systems is expected to grow very fast. Yet, local financial institutions are still reluctant to finance the suppliers of these and other solar products. The Green 4 Access First Loss Facility, a new blended finance scheme, is trying to change this.

A European guarantee instrument played a major role in Invest NL’s decision to invest €7.5 million in Protix in the form of a convertible loan. What is the so-called InnovFin SME Guarantee?