ACUMEN RESILIENT AGRICULTURE FUND,
Status: Approved investmentWhy disclosure?
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Disclaimer
The information as disclosed is indicative and provided on an "as-is/as available" basis for general informational purposes only and should not be construed as financial, legal or investment advice, nor as a commitment or an offer to arrange or provide any financing. The final decision to provide financing is subject to the terms and conditions of FMO in its sole and absolute discretion. When providing links to other sites, FMO bears no responsibility for the accuracy, legality or content of the external site or for that of subsequent links. The information on proposed investment for high-risk investments is made available in the language relevant to the country or region where the bulk of operations take place. Translations of any information into languages other than English are intended as a convenience for local stakeholders. In case of any discrepancy, the information provided in English will prevail.
Who is our customer
Acumen Resilient Agriculture Fund (“ARAF” or “Fund”) will be a fund that provides equity & mezzanine products and technical support to early-stage and early-growth agribusinesses. In turn, these businesses provide climate resilience solutions to smallholder farmers in East and West Africa.
What is our funding objective?
ARAF is established to support smallholder farmers to enhance their livelihoods and climate resilience. It will invest in the following types of companies: • Aggregators: companies that provide bundled solutions such as climate resilience inputs and/or affordable credit bundled with extension services or access to markets; • Agri Tech businesses: companies that provide digital solutions such as an online market place that connects farmers with input providers and/or offer extension support to improve farmer productivity; • Financial service providers: companies that provide farmers with access to innovative financial services enabling them to diversify their income base by investing in additional productive assets and making it affordable to them to buy farm inputs.
Why do we fund this investment?
ARAF’s investment strategy to support smallholder farmers in Africa, with a particular focus on climate, fits well with FMO’s strategy to improve the livelihoods of smallholder farmers and the communities they live in.
What is the Environmental and Social categorization rationale?
The E&S category is B. The potential E&S risks derived from the investments are considered to be low and manageable. ARAF has designed an adequate E&S risk screening process, based on Acumen’s regional and sector experience, and the pre-investment E&S due diligence process is considered to be adequate. ARAF has an adequate post-investment process which will use, among other tools, a context-based data gathering proprietary tool (Lean Data) to provide feedback to ARAF and the investee company on E&S Performance.
More investments
| Date | Total FMO financing |
|---|---|
| 1/6/2020 | USD 2.50 MLN |
- Website customer/investment
- https://acumen.org/
- Region
- Africa
- Country
- Africa
- Sector
- Agribusiness, Food & Water
- Publication date
- 7/30/2019
- Effective date
- 1/6/2020
- Total FMO financing
- USD 5.00 MLN
- Funding
- MASSIF
-
Risk categorization on environmental and social impacts, A = high risk, B+ = medium high risk, B = medium risk, C = low risk
Environmental & Social Category
(A, B+, B or C) - B