Coalition of private and public sector launches SDG500, a groundbreaking USD$500 million investment platform to accelerate progress towards the SDGs

Coalition of private and public sector launches SDG500, a groundbreaking USD$500 million investment platform to accelerate progress towards the SDGs

Davos – 22 January 2020

News from InFiNe.lu Members, Bamboo Capital Partners (BCP)

A coalition of private and public sector launches SDG500, a groundbreaking USD$500 million investment platform to accelerate progress towards the SDGs 

• SDG500 is a pioneering multimillion-dollar investment platform dedicated to helping achieve the SDGs.

• The investment platform will use debt and equity to bridge the financing gap between seed and growth stage for hundreds of businesses in emerging and frontier markets.

• The coalition partners include: United Nations Capital Development Fund, International Trade Centre, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), CARE, Smart Africa, Stop TB Partnership and Bamboo Capital Partners. The IDB Lab of the Inter-American Development Bank is an interested party.

A coalition of private and public sector organisations, including United Nations entities, non-governmental organisations and a private equity firm today announces the launch of SDG500 – a new investment platform to help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

This USD$500 million investment platform is the first-of-its-kind dedicated to helping achieve the SDGs. SDG500 will offer exposure to six different underlying funds. Each of these funds is or will be managed by impact asset manager Bamboo Capital Partners.

The funds will use debt and equity to invest at Seed, Series A and Series B stages in hundreds of businesses in emerging and frontier markets. SDG500 aims to address the ‘missing middle’ financing gap that affects entrepreneurs in these markets, where growth is constrained by a lack of access to follow-on financing.

The funds will target businesses in the agriculture, finance, energy, education and healthcare sectors across Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean and Pacific regions. There will also be a genderlens focus and some of the funds will specifically invest in businesses that empower and provide jobs for women.

The funds composing the SDG500 platform each include a catalytic first loss layer designed to encourage and protect senior tranches of funding. Initial sponsors of the catalytic layers of the funds of SDG500 include the European Union, the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States, the Governments of Luxembourg, Togo and Tunisia, CARE and the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa.

The underlying six funds are: the ABC Fund, an impact investment vehicle targeting smallholder farmers and small and medium agribusinesses in developing countries; BUILD, a fixed income fund aimed at early stage enterprises in the Least Developed Countries; the CARE SheTrades Fund, a gender lens fund which will use debt and equity to invest in businesses in Asia; BLOC SmartAfrica and BLOC Latin America, venture capital funds targeting technology enterprises in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean respectively; and HEAL, a venture capital fund investing in healthtech businesses in emerging and frontier markets.

The financing gap to achieve the SDGs in developing countries is estimated to be US$2.5 trillion per year. To achieve the SDGs by 2030, more innovative and sustainable financing solutions are required. The launch of the initiative will be announced at the “SDG500 Roundtable” which takes place today in Davos, on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting.

Jean-Philippe de Schrevel, Founder and Managing Partner at Bamboo Capital Partners commented: “The launch of SDG500 is a unique milestone for the impact investing industry. We have never seen a coalition from the private and public sector come together to achieve the SDGs on this scale before. The missing middle financing gap is real, and it is suffocating early stage enterprises which have the potential to transform some of the world’s poorest and most underdeveloped regions. We believe that by working together to finance and scale these businesses, we can achieve the SDGs and take another step closer to a better, more sustainable future for all.”

Source: BCP