Responsability Social Investments, a Switzerland-based investment company, has raised $15m for its first quasi-corporate venturing fund to invest in companies that provide basic services in the areas of energy, agriculture and information and communication to poor people in emerging markets.
The fund invests in companies that are working to tackle inefficiencies in developing countries such as high transport costs and inadequate distribution channels, with the aim of providing basic goods and services of not only social value but also commercial value to people at the base of the pyramid, the estimated 3 billion people in Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe who do not have adequate access to these services.
This fund has been developed in collaboration with Helvetas, a private development organization in Switzerland, and the Doen Foundation, a development fund based in the Netherlands. It is further supported by the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and the SNV Netherlands Development Organization.
Responsability Social Investments manages $$800m and is backed by Swiss financial institutions, including Baumann & Cie, Banquiers, Credit Suisse, Raiffeisen Schweiz, Swiss Re, Bank Vontobel as well as George Avenue.