Incofin hits $60m first close on India impact fund
Belgium-based Incofin Investment Management, which focuses on financial inclusion and developing market agri-food segments, has reached a first close of $60 million for an India impact fund.
LPs include development banks CDC Group and Proparco, as well as several Belgium family offices and institutions such as Korys Investment, the King Baudouin Foundation, and the Belgian Investment Company for Developing Countries (BIO).
The SDG Frontier Fund, a fund-of-funds that co-invests with BIO, also contributed. SDG Frontier Fund, which aims to drive sustainable economic growth in Asia and Africa, reached a first close of EUR25.3 million ($30 million) last year on a target of EUR50 million with support from the likes of King Baudouin. It plans to back 5-12 private equity funds in total.
The Incofin India Progress Fund has a target corpus of $80-100 million. It will invest in businesses outside the country’s major urban areas. Incofin notes that although 65% of the population lives in rural areas, private equity investments to date have largely focused on cities.
Incofin has been in India for 13 years and made several investments in financial inclusion and agri-food businesses via teams based in Chennai and New Delhi. Previous investments include Annapurna Microfinance, Fusion Microfinance, and Sohan Lal Commodity Management, an agricultural logistics and financing provider.
“We are convinced that strategic partnerships between large corporates with a genuine focus on sustainability and impact fund managers backed by investors with an impact mandate are the way forward to achieve tangible impact on the ground,” Loic De Cannière, founder of Incofin, said in a statement.
Incofin has $1.2 billion in assets under management and a team of more than 70 professionals with backgrounds in private equity and rural and agricultural finance. The firm has invested $2.7 billion in about 350 companies across Asia, Africa, and Latin America since its inception in 2001. It claims to offer continuous monitoring of investments and impact measurement for various counterparties.
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