Fund
Andes Plus Fund I LP - No Longer Operating
In November 2020, Andes Impact Partners launched its first mezzanine debt impact fund, Andes Plus Fund I LP (APF-I). Its initial focus was Colombia and Peru. It was aimed at inclusive businesses, which incorporate low-income or underserved communities in their value chain, improving the incomes and quality of life of these populations. The fund targeted companies in three focus sectors: 1) Sustainable Agribusiness, 2) Light or Artisanal Manufacturing, and 3) Inclusive Technologies (businesses with technology-based solutions that enable low-income or underserved communities to either increase their income or save on costs).
APF-I was launched at the dawn of the Covid-19 pandemic. Latin America and the Andean region suffered from unprecedented health and economic challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic; Peru and Colombia were particularly badly affected by the crisis. The resulting operating challenges faced by the companies targeted by the fund's strategy led to a delay in placing capital (companies delayed expansion plans, and typically opted for lower-cost capital available from the rescue packages offered by the governments in target countries).
After a year-long delay in placing capital, APF-I revised its strategy in November of 2021 in response to the market conditions, broadening its focus on technology-enabled enterprises. With the renewed strategy and improvement in the pandemic conditions, the fund was on track to make its first investments in July 2022.
A key person event was triggered in June 2022. The investors’ perception of the higher risk associated with the fund’s strategy in the environment at the time, combined with the delay in capital deployment and the key person event, led to investors deciding to liquidate the fund.
The revised fund’s strategy in the prevalent global economic environment of higher interest rates, reduced liquidity, and global recession risk could not be tested.
The fund investors were:
Dutch Good Growth Fund
The Dutch Good Growth Fund (DGGF) provides financing to intermediary funds and financial institutions with the goal of developing financial ecosystems for missing middle SMEs in developing countries and emerging markets. Spurring growth of inclusive businesses and businesses led by young and female entrepreneurs is at the heart of the DGGF mandate. The DGGF is owned by the Dutch government and managed by Triple Jump and PwC.
Blink C.V.
Blink is a single-family office focused on promoting market-based solutions to poverty, social and economic inequality, and environmental degradation. Blink does this mainly by investing in highly impactful investment funds along three broad themes: economic empowerment, access to basic goods and services, and environmental protection. It also makes selective direct investments in highly scalable businesses that generate significant impact in one or more of these impact themes. Blink focuses primarily on Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and South & Southeast Asia, but it also selectively invests in developed markets.
Ceniarth LLC
Ceniarth is a single-family office focused on funding market-based solutions that benefit underserved communities. Through a range of investing activity, Ceniarth provides capital to enable the deployment of products, services, and support that directly impact marginalized, primarily rural, populations. Ceniarth aims to finance enterprises and intermediaries in ways that lead to long term growth and sustained benefits to communities. It funds non-profits, for-profits, and hybrid organizations.