The investor is seeking to support emerging markets infrastructure development in the areas of renewable energy, clean mobility, health, water, and sanitation.
ImpactA Global, a female-led investor in emerging markets infrastructure debt, has secured $5m (€4.4m) in commitments from Prosper Africa, a US presidential initiative that seeks to strengthen ties between the US and Africa.
The US government funding via Prosper Africa is intended to drive ImpactA Global’s strategy to finance sustainable infrastructure projects in underserved regions, with a focus on addressing climate challenges and reducing social inequalities in Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa and South Asia.
It has also forged a partnership with UK-based financial services group Legal & General, which said last October it would commit $100m to ImpactA’s activities on top of an undisclosed initial investment made earlier in 2023.
ImpactA told Impact Investor it was at “various stages” of deploying its first investments but was not yet able to disclose details.
Created in 2022, the London-based investment firm primarily supports business growth and resilient infrastructure development in the areas of renewable energy, clean mobility, health, water, and sanitation. The company, which is led by co-founders and co-CEOs Isabella da Costa Mendes and Victoria Miles, has expanded its staff to 13 from four at inception.
Addressing climate challenges and reducing inequalities in emerging markets will only be possible by mobilising large pools of private institutional capital, according to Miles. “Working with partners such as Prosper Africa will enable ImpactA Global to accelerate this mobilisation and implement its strategy. We look forward to a successful collaboration,” she said.
Catalytic investment
British Robinson, Prosper Africa’s coordinator, said the organisation was supporting ImpactA because its team was “well positioned to continue to mobilise significant private sector investment in emerging markets that aligns with our efforts towards catalytic investment in Africa”.
Da Costa Mendes told Impact Investor in March 2023 that her team believed that their strategy would be appealing to institutional investors looking for long-term, low-volatility exposure to emerging markets in a resilient asset class, while delivering measurable impact at the same time.
Miles, interviewed in June, said that one focus for the firm would be how its investments directly impact women, given they are 14 times more likely to be affected by climate disaster than men because of their roles in securing food, water and firewood for their families. She also called on development finance institutions to incentivise standardisation of the investment framework in emerging markets to make it easier to invest in renewable energy.
ImpactA Global has said it will invest with a view to meeting various SDG targets using an impact measurement process based on a proprietary scorecard methodology, utilising both quantitative and qualitative data. Investments are screened based on impact objectives, with specific impact KPIs and measurable outcome objectives.
