Dalberg, the Dutch Good Growth Fund, Omidyar Network and the Collaborative for Frontier Finance published late October a report entitled “The Missing Middles: Segmenting Enterprises to Better Understand Their Financial Needs”, to which I&P provided data, expertise and guidance.
I&P takes a step to fight the risk of "impact washing" associated with the growth of the industry and drafted an article entitled "There is no such thing as impact, but only proof of impact".
EMPEA (an independent organization for private capital in emerging markets) published a new report entitled “Private Equity’s Role in Delivering the SDGs: Current Approaches and Main Practices”. The report also features several case studies, including one on I&P’s alignment strategy with the SDGs.
With the lesson n°9 from "Fifteen Years, Fifteen Lessons from Africa", we continue to share insights about key elements characterizing the impact investing sector and we focus here on the frequent need to extend the investment period when targeting small and young enterprises in Africa. Extending the investment period often appears necessary to enable these companies to reach their full growth and impact potential.
The eight lesson of the document "Fifteen Years, Fifteen Lessons from Africa" analyzes I&P’s choice to focus on small investments led by African entrepreneurs in fragile states. This represents an impact choice, motivated by the fact that there are very few financing solutions available. That being said, this choice has several consequences on the economic model of the fund.
The Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN) published the 8th edition of its Annual Impact Investor Survey, a comprehensive assessment of data on the global impact investing market comprising data and insights from 229 of the world’s leading impact investors, among which Investisseurs & Partenaires.
Chapter three of the document "Fifteen years, Fifteen lessons from Africa" gather a few lessons learned from I&P's experience as an investor with African entrepreneurs. Considering the size of the companies we invest in, the human dimension is essential and the creation of a long-term relationship of trust between the investor and the entrepreneur is a key success factor.
The sixth lesson of the document "15 years, 15 lessons from Africa" focuses on an aspect often underestimated by small and medium African enterprises : the commercial and marketing dimensions (customers' knowledge, branding, market access ...). I&P's experience has shown how critical these issues are: they drive as much the success of a company as its ability to produce or manage its finances.
En 15 ans d'activité, I&P a financé de nombreuses entreprises dans les secteurs de l'agrobusiness et de l'agriculture. Ces secteurs représentent environ 40% de notre deal flow, et plus d'un tiers du PIB dans nos pays d'investissement: il est donc crucial de comprendre les enjeux spécifiques à ces secteurs afin d'accompagner au mieux les entreprises et maximiser leurs impacts. C'est pourquoi nous consacrons un chapitre entier à ce secteur dans le document "Quinze ans, Quinze Leçons d'Afrique".
I&P continues to explore the document "Fifteen years, Fifteen lessons from Africa", with a second chapter dedicated to the structural changes of Africa’s economy and markets.
We focus this week on the lesson #4, in which we tell how the African economy has shifted dramatically from an economy of imitation to an economy of innovation. analyzing what consequences it entails for investors.
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