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Skandia Invests SEK1bn in Latin American Social Bond via Placement
March, 29 2021
Latin America and the Caribbean - Sweden’s Skandia announced it is investing SEK1bn (€98m) in a five-year social bond issue benefiting Latin American and Caribbean youth, taking up bulk of the issue, with asset manager BlackRock and other investors also participating in the private placement of the bonds
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Nigerian Fintech of the Unbanked Bankly Raises $2M Led by Vault
March, 24 2021
Nigeria - Bankly aims to grow its customer base to 2 million unbanked Nigerians over the next three years. The goal is to support the Central Bank of Nigeria’s National Financial Inclusion Strategy of increasing the number of banked Nigerians from 60% to 80% by 2020.
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Pakistan: PMIC Sets up Fund for Startups
March, 23 2021
Pakistan - The Pakistan Microfinance Investment Company Limited (PMIC) has recently set up and launched its “Institution Development Fund” to provide support to the companies that would not normally meet PMIC’s financing requirements, a statement said on Monday.
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Jamaica: SMEs to Get Greater Access to Loans from JN Bank
March, 23 2021
Jamaica - Micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) are to benefit from broader access to financing from the JN Group, with its commercial banking arm, JN Bank, now on-lending funds at single-digit interest rates from the Development Bank of Jamaica (DBJ)
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India: Dvara KGFS Raises Euro 8 Million in ECBs
March, 23 2021
India - Dvara KGFS, a non-deposit-taking NBFC based in Chennai, on Monday said it has raised euro 8 million from European social impact funds, Invest In Visions, Germany (IIV) and Darlehenskasse Muenster, Luxembourg (DKM), in external commercial borrowings (ECBs)
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India: IPO-Bound Utkarsh SFB Raises Rs 240 Crore from Six Investors
March, 22 2021
India - The allotment included 37,037,037 equity shares to Olympus ACF, 13,444,444 shares to responsAbility Participations Mauritius, 12,962,962 equity shares to Aavishkaar Bharat Fund; and 8,539,068 equity shares each to Triodos Sicav II - Triodos Microfinance Fund, Legal Owner Triodos Funds BV and Growth Catalyst Partners LLC
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Nigeria: CBN Raises SMEs Fund to N300bn, Disburses N149.21bn
March, 20 2021
Nigeria - The Central Bank of Nigeria on Saturday announced its decision to raise the Targeted Credit Facility for households and small and medium enterprises from N150bn to N300bn. It also stated that the bank had disbursed a total of N149.21bn to SMEs and households across the country under the TCF
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IFC, GIIN Launch Harmonized Measurement Indicators for Impact Investors
March, 18 2021
Global - World Bank Group member the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN), and a group of leading impact investors announced the launch of the Joint Impact Indicators (JII), a set of high-level, harmonized indicators aimed at helping impact investors to measure and report on their investment activities
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M.S. Martinez, GP, Mouro Capital: Lending as Destination
March, 17 2021
Global - Lending is at the core of what we do as fintech investors. But our approach to investing in lending start-ups has changed over the years, integrating learnings from the past to bet on the winners of the future.
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Africa: ACF Secures $115m Syndicated Loan for Sustainable Agriculture
March, 17 2021
Africa - The $115 million syndicated line of credit now available to Agri Commodities and Finance (ACF) has been opened by several development finance institutions. These include the Netherlands Development Finance Corporation (FMO), the Canadian government’s Development Finance Institute (FinDev Canada), and Oesterreichische Entwicklungsbank AG (OeEB), the Austrian development bank
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Ankur Capital Tops up Early-Stage Impact Tech Fund in India
March, 16 2021
India - The Mumbai-based impact investor secured backing from India’s Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council and the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development to bring its second fund to 3.3 billion rupees ($45.5 million) of a targeted $50 million
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Metito Gets IFC Backing for Middle East, Africa Water Projects
March, 13 2021
Africa and the Middle East - This is part of IFC’s $8 billion COVID-19 fast-track financing facility, launched in March 2020 to support businesses and sustain jobs through the coronavirus pandemic. Metito is the first company in the infrastructure sector across the Middle East and North Africa to benefit from this facility
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Greenwashing in Finance: Europe’s Push to Police ESG Investing
March, 10 2021
Global - Under the European rules, which are part of a wider series of green finance regulations, investment products will effectively be categorised as sustainable and non-sustainable. Any asset manager that wants to market their fund as a sustainable product will be subject to tough disclosure requirements
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New Benchmarks for ESG Accountability
March, 09 2021
Global - While data suggests that the ESG and impact investing markets are growing rapidly, concerns abound about how financial services firms are measuring and managing their ESG and impact investing performance
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Fourth Partner Energy Sets up Indonesian JV
March, 05 2021
Indonesia - Fourth Partner Energy (4PEL) has partnered with Indonesia’s Indika Energy to form a joint venture, Empat Mitra Indika Tenaga Surya (EMITS), for setting up integrated solar, storage and electric vehicle (EV) charging projects in Indonesia, the firms said in a joint statement on Friday
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Mobility App Bolt Receives €20m to Expand in Emerging Markets
March, 05 2021
Global - The start-up, which offers ride-sharing and e-scooter services, said it will use the IFC funding to further develop mobility solutions that “create earning opportunities, stimulate entrepreneurship and improve access to transportation in emerging economies”
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Mastercard Issues $600 Million Sustainability Bond
March, 03 2021
Global - The 10-year bond will pay interest semi-annually at a fixed rate of 1.90%. Accompanying this 10-year Sustainability Bond was a traditional $700 million 30-year bond that will pay interest semi-annually at a fixed rate of 2.95%. Mastercard expects to allocate the net proceeds from the Sustainability Bond to eligible initiatives within 3 years of the transaction
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Investors Are Failing African Entrepreneurs — It’s Time for a Change
March, 02 2021
Africa - Despite the global economic slowdown caused by COVID-19, the case for investing in Africa is stronger than ever. Africa will remain a competitive investment destination for decades to come because of its improving relative risk profiles, regional integration and strong economic fundamentals
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Kenya: LMDF Backs Yehu Microfinance
March, 01 2021
Kenya - Luxembourg Microfinance and Development Fund (LMDF) advised by ADA has invested an undisclosed amount in Yehu Microfinance, a Kenyan microfinance institution (MFI)
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