UNCDF and Lupoff Friends and Family Interests, LLC sign innovative partnership to support LDCs

The United Nations Capital Development Fund (‘UNCDF’) and Lupoff Friends and Family Interests, LLC (‘Lupoff Friends and Family’) announced their partnership to drive additional private capital to catalytic investments in support of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (‘SDGs’) in the world’s poorest 47 nations, known as the Least Developed Countries (‘LDCs’).

Lupoff Friends and Family will seek opportunities to co-invest alongside UNCDF as it makes loans and guarantees to a pipeline of small and medium-sized enterprises (‘SMEs’), financial service providers and local infrastructure projects in the LDCs. It may also take a stake in the UNCDF-Impact Shares Exchange Traded Fund that includes 200 large corporations that have a positive economic impact in the LDCs, as judged by an index co-created by UNCDF, Impact Shares, Morningstar and Sustainalytics. In his capacity as a Fellow at Fordham University’s Center for Research in Contemporary Finance, teaching impact investing, and as Executive in Residence at Fordham’s Gabelli School of Business, Peter Lupoff will also work with UNCDF to set up an internship for Fordham graduate students to gain first-hand knowledge of the origination and structuring of impact deals in emerging markets around the world.

UNCDF and Lupoff Friends and Family announced their partnership at the December 12, 2018, Fordham Impact Investment Convening, a conference that brought together over 300 investment professionals interested in achieving social, environmental or development impact alongside financial returns.

“We are very excited about our collaboration with Peter Lupoff,” said UNCDF Executive Secretary Judith Karl. “This is our first such partnership with a family office, and it will bring us a wealth of financial knowledge, sophistication, and expertise. With his decades of experience and unmatched insights into the investment world, Peter will be an invaluable strategic advisor for UNCDF as we continue to pioneer innovative financial vehicles to help attract private investment capital to the entrepreneurs, small businesses, and regions that need it most.”

Original source: UNCDF
Published on 19 December 2018