ResponsAbility hits $173m first close on Asia food fund
Swiss impact investor ResponsAbility has reached a first close of USD 173m for a South and Southeast Asia-focused sustainable food private equity fund. The target is USD 400m.
The fund has been in the market since at least November 2020. It is the firm's second vehicle focused on food and agriculture in the region. The first had raised and deployed USD 67.5m as of November 2020.
ResponsAbility's assets under management globally came to USD 3.5bn as of end-2022, including 280 portfolio countries in 75 countries. The firm has deployed around USD 13bn since its inception in 2003.
ResponsAbility described the first food fund as “showing a strong performance as well as delivering high impact, changing the lives of millions of smallholder farmers across Asia, and implementing sustainable agricultural practices on hundreds of thousands of hectares of land.”
The firm invests across private equity and private debt. Core themes are sustainable food, financial inclusion, and climate finance. All investments are said to target specific measurable impact alongside market returns, in line with article nine of the EU’s sustainable finance disclosure regulation. The article states that financial returns are secondary to impact.
The Asia food strategy involves accessing 1.2bn predominantly young, urbanised consumers expected to join the upper middle class, reflecting increasing demand for food that’s safe, healthy, and convenient.
The fund focuses on mid and downstream companies and aims to help them improve efficiency in production and distribution. India, Indonesia, Vietnam, and the Philippines are flagged as target markets.
“With our local presence in India, Bangkok and our soon-to-be-established office in Singapore, our sector know-how and proven experience, we are not only able to identify trends and growth drivers which are transforming the food value chain, but most importantly are able to translate this into high quality and proprietary deal flow,” Rik Vyverman, head of sustainable food private equity at ResponsAbility,” said in a statement.
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