Investing in an inclusive & green future
Challenging the Status Quo
Gender gaps lead to lost business growth
Statistics show that women-led companies are more capital-efficient, achieve 35% higher ROI, and, when supported by investors, encounter 12% greater revenue. Yet a gap still exists when it comes to what women need most to scale their businesses: funding. Only 2.2% of VC funding went to women-led businesses in 2021.
Significant investment gap
Anecdotally, only 2% of businesses in Africa and Latin America are investible. Key factors contributing to this include a lack of strategic and operational support, weak management capacity, and not investing in R&D. This large investment gap ultimately affects the ability of companies to scale and in turn, drive more jobs and income into growing economies.
Growing need for climate-compatible development
As global temperatures rise, the need for climate innovations is also rising. In fact, if global temperatures increase by 4 degrees, it could lead to $23 trillion in economic losses. In rough terms, that equates to one-third of the world’s GDP.
Using gender and climate investing to advance sustainable development
AlphaMundi Foundation is committed to strengthening the commercial viability of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in Africa and Latin America. With a focus on promoting gender inclusion and environmental sustainability, we apply a Gender Lens Investing for Climate (GLIC) approach to structured blended finance. In other words, we offer SMEs with tailored products (such as concessional loans and first-loss guarantees) with the goal to increase private sector investment towards sustainable development challenges.
Our long-term objective is to see sustainable, gender smart SMEs improve their overall business performance, scale their operations, create jobs, and deliver best-in-class products and services to their respective markets.
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We provide SMEs with structured blended finance products: a financing model that mobilizes greater funding from the private sector to pressing development challenges like income generation, social inequities, and climate change.
Some of the structured blended finance products we provide include:
Concessional loans
Guarantees
Technical Assistance
Investment-stage grants
Scaling capital
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We invest in SMEs with intentional gender and climate lenses. Specific services offered:
Gender and climate-based technical assistance provided to SMEs
Data collection and dissemination on GLIC. We gather, track and share impact data for GLIC to build up the field and show the benefits to investing with gender and climate lenses.
Our core activities are:
Investing in the planet and its people.
Meet our Portfolio Companies
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SunCulture
SunCulture empowers smallholder farmers with solar irrigation. Their irrigation kit is a highly efficient drip-irrigation system that delivers the right amount of water to each crop and can increase yields by more than 300%.
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Mr. Green Africa
Mr. Green Africa is on a mission to get plastic waste off the streets in Kenya and to turn it into high-quality post-consumer recycled (PCR) pellets for reuse. They work with a network of 2,500+ waste pickers who source the plastics and operate a processing facility, which turns the plastic into PCR pellets.
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Twiga Foods
Twiga is a business-to-business marketplace platform that sources produce directly from farmers and delivers it to urban retailers at below-market prices. Founded in 2014, Twiga has experienced fast-paced growth and is currently the largest distributor of fresh produce in Kenya.
“I emerged as the best performing sales lead at SunCulture as a result of the training that was provided through [AMF's] technical assistance. The training improved my emotional intelligence and communication with my team.”
— Zainab Ahijah, Eldoret Regional Manager at SunCulture
What our partners say
“Small and growing enterprises play a vital role as engines of economic and social growth. Investors like the AlphaMundi Foundation enable enterprises to grow, thrive and achieve true impact. Value for Women is proud to partner with the AlphaMundi Foundation in delivering on our shared vision that gender equality is a central driver for better social, environmental, and business outcomes.”
—Rebecca Fries, Value for Women CEO
AMF took a bet on us. There are incredible learnings that have come from this and all the other interactions we’ve had with AlphaMundi.
—Viral Dodhia, Head of Financial Planning & Analysis at Twiga
“It is rare to find a funding partner like AlphaMundi who rolls up their sleeves and is willing to collaborate deeply to accelerate company growth.”
— Andi Kleissner, Amped Innovation CEO
“I do want to commend the Technical Assistance received from AMF. At first, I was skeptical, as most programs want quick results. Whereas with AMF, we can now turn this feasibility study into an incredible carbon transformation project. So I commend AMF with the long term view they take and the TA they provide SMEs.”
—Federico Tonnelli, Director of Development & Partnerships at Asili Agriculture
Image credit: Tienda Pago (SME partner)
Meet the AMF Team
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Sawa Nakagawa
Executive Director
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Patricia Chin-Sweeney
Senior Advisor
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James Karanja
Finance & Compliance Manager
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Claire Mugo
Program Manager
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Nora von Wintersdorff
Investment Associate
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Beth McMaster
Accountant
Our Partners
Board of Directors
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Lisa Scheible Willems
Investment Committee Member
AlphaMundi Group
Board Chair -
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Tim Radjy
Founder/Managing Partner
AlphaMundi Group
Board Treasurer -
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Jessica Espinoza
CEO
2X Collaborative
Non Executive Director -
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Richard Shumann
Chief Risk Officer
Vitas Group
Non Executive Director -
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Brigit Helms
Executive Director
Miller Center
Non Executive Director -
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Carolina Suarez
CEO of Latimpacto
Non Executive Director
Let’s support even more businesses
We're always looking to partner with organizations and individuals who are equally committed to sustainable development. Send us a message and let's discuss how we can work together.
