Africa: Áfrishela Selected to Emerging Impact Manager (EIM) for the Impactassets 50™ 2023

Nairobi, Kenya — Afrishela (which means 'her money in Swahili ) and promoted by the Graça Machel Trust, is honoured to be named an Emeritus Manager by Impact Assets in its annual ImpactAssets 50™ (IA 50). The IA 50 is a free, publicly available, searchable database of impact investment fund managers for impact investors, family offices, corporations, foundations, and institutional investors.

As an Indigenous African fund manager that aims to contribute to increased economic advancement, visible leadership and improvement in the lives of African Women through gender-inclusive investments, Afrishela is a fund designed, led and managed by African women for African women as depicted in our logo that symbolizes an endless loop of indigenous women holding hands.

Afrishela fund I, which is raising $30 million, is a pure gender lens investment vehicle that seeks to play where few others do by 'investing in the missing middle'- at the intersection of gender, climate and early-stage financing to tap into, highlight and scale the impact of innovative women-businesses by providing flexible and patient mezzanine capital to women-owned and led businesses to support women lead the way in providing and scaling solutions that promote indigenous climate-action and gender-equality.

Our deal sizes range from $20,000 to $500,000, and we apply an alternative-credit-risk-assessment process to widen access to finance, tackle structural-inequalities and mitigate unconscious-bias. Afrishela intentionally drives impact through its investee companies through post technical assistance to drive value creation and has financial incentives tied to impact outcomes for both the entrepreneur and investor. We look forward to catalysing impact and generating returns using blended finance.

In its twelfth year, the IA 50 continues to raise awareness of impact fund managers across impact areas, maturity, and geography, serving as a basis for deepening understanding of the field. A record 163 impact fund managers were included totalling $122.48 billion in assets, invested across various asset classes and impact themes.