Mini-grids seem to be on the rise again. I started looking at this opportunity 4 years ago, and everyone was expecting the model to slowly die for lack of financial sustainability, but it has since then gained a lot of momentum and interest from both donors and strategic investors. Supporters have committed billions to the …
Most DFIs are very aware of the pressure to act quickly and play the role of the first responders. Analysts on all sides are calling multilateral and bilateral banks to “shift their mindset” and act swiftly, as the COVID-19 crisis is unfolding and might trigger a profound economic and social crisis, as sufficiently reiterated in the recent boom of …
I don’t know for sure. I don’t even know whether my flight will take place in a couple of hours, as I have been trying to go back to Europe for the past week. The situation is complex and uncertain, and outbreaks are still popping up across the globe. It is challenging to estimate the …
As investors, you have probably seen some of the companies in your portfolio or in your pipeline jumping into the blockchain craze, driven by FOMO, hype, low to no regulation or maybe a genuine intention to address a real challenge. Every article about blockchain starts by stating, half-apologetically, that blockchain is not bitcoin and that …
There is a large pile of literature for entrepreneurs on how to raise funds, the things to do and the mistakes to avoid. A lack of funding is the main cause of failures, and mastering the dos and don’ts is paramount in this area. Yet, almost nothing exists for fund managers. If you want to …
A question I keep getting back to is: why do family offices and development institutions in Europe contribute increasingly to impact investing funds, and the ones in MENA don’t (ok, I only ask myself this question some times, I do have other concerns going on in my life). As far as I know, I have never …
So many new online “impact investing” platforms were launched recently e.g Swell Investing, Open Invest and Motif. The premise is the same and a bit familiar by now: Millennials value impact and meaning in their investing decisions but no accessible solutions are available for them. Let’s forget for now about the existence of various crowdfunding platforms already enabling this …
As a practitioner of impact investing, I have seen a multitude of fund proposals with debt investments as core focus – more commonly called “debt funds”. What do they have in common and what do you need to get right when assessing them? The rationale behind debt funds: While some of them might also conduct …
As some of you know already, starting last November, I decided to move to a new sector for a one-year assignment (and a new city, I am now most of the time in Brussels) focusing on financing early stage projects in renewable energy across Africa, Asia and Latin America. I am sharing here, after three …
I designed this today after a tense discussion with my investment committee. I think it captures quite well our daily trilemmas. You cannot have more than two.