Blended finance

British International Investment (BII), the UK’s development finance institution, is backing the first fund dedicated to development impact bonds in lower and middle-income countries.

Report finds sevenfold rise in private financing for emerging markets is required in the next decade to meet climate and energy goals.

The private debt strategy, which provides long-term expansion debt and technical assistance to support growing agri-businesses, has drawn investment from public and private investors. 

In the second of two articles looking at the capacity building challenge, we talk to BlueOrchard and Earth Capital Limited about their approach to providing support to investees.

In the first of two articles on the topic of capacity building, we look at how impact investors are going beyond just injecting capital to providing the support portfolio companies need for their long-term sustainability.

Private debt investments in emerging markets are still considered high risk by some institutional investors, but blended finance solutions and other structures are attracting the interest of some of Europe’s largest pension funds.

Spark+, a $64m blended finance fund, invests in scalable companies offering clean cooking energy solutions to the mass market in sub-Saharan Africa.

The Green Earth Impact Fund is seeking to attract up to $250m of investment in fund aiming to close the public-private financing gap for sustainable investments. 

A ‘blended government’ approach based on public-private partnerships can help overcome the shortcomings of the ‘vending-machine government’ model, according to the authors of ‘Bridgebuilders’, reviewed by Christopher Walker.

The Urban Resilience Fund is a multi-vehicle blended finance initiative, backed by DFIs and other investors, to support climate-focused projects in sub-Saharan Africa.