Swiss impact investor responsAbility Investments has announced raising $106 million for its climate-smart agri and food fund that will invest in Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Africa.
The fund secured commitments from public and private sector impact investors, including Global Affairs Canada, Dutch entrepreneurial development bank FMO, Danish Investment Fund for Developing Countries, Visa Foundation, Calvert Impact Capital, Bank of America, and Ceniarth.
Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research and German state-owned development bank KfW served as anchor investors while the International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) is the guarantee provider, according to the announcement.
The commitments are part of a blended finance structure and aim at providing long-term expansion debt and technical assistance to growing innovative agribusinesses, responsAbility said.
The investor’s interest in climate-smart agribusinesses comes as the current global food systems are responsible for about one-third of greenhouse gas emissions and nearly 80% of deforestation. responsAbility said about $350 billion is needed to transform the global food systems.
“We have an opportunity to showcase that there are investable projects in this grossly unfunded space,” Suhasini Singh, head of Sustainable Food Debt at responsAbility, said.
In January, responsAbility announced the first close for its South and Southeast Asia-focused sustainable food private equity fund at $173 million. The vehicle, which targets $300-400 million, marks the firm’s second PE growth strategy in Asia.
responAbility typically invests in companies in climate finance, financial inclusion, and sustainable food.
Its latest Asia-focused fund will focus on mid and downstream companies looking at efficiency in food production and distribution in India, Indonesia, Vietnam, and the Philippines.
The total spending on food in Asia is expected to double to over $8 trillion by 2030 as more consumers move to urban areas and join the burgeoning middle-income class.
Since its inception in 2003, responsAbility has deployed over $13 billion in impact investments. It manages $4.8 billion in assets across approximately 280 portfolio companies in 74 countries.