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Add to Preferred SourcesNDF, together with implementing partner, The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is designing a new venture capital and technical assistance fund, ADB Ventures, to boost innovative early-stage growth companies with climate technology-driven business models and solutions for Asia Pacific
“This fund is a truly new approach to a well-known challenge,” asserts NDF Manager, Aleksi Lumijärvi, who will be overseeing the rollout from the NDF side. “The demand-driven approach combined with patient venture capital is really something quite new and potentially very impactful!”
The project’s target area is crucial from a climate change perspective. The many countries that make up this region have some of the fastest growing economies in the world, characterised by expanding industrial production and a rising middle class, driving higher energy consumption and therefore greenhouse gas emissions.
“We have to win the battle there if we want to combat climate change,” Lumijärvi says. “It’s also a good business opportunity, but there are challenges too.”
The initial target markets in the Greater Mekong Sub-region are fragmented with many individual countries of limited size, entailing high-risk, high-cost market entry.
There are already a number of ready-to-scale climate technologies that could have a sizable impact in these markets, but the companies offering them are deterred by the sheer number of barriers for entry.
Financing from the NDF, together with funding from ADB and other partners, will be used for the design, piloting and implementation of the ADB Ventures mainly during 2019, and the Investment Fund is expected to be operational by the first-quarter 2020. The 20-year fund is targeting equity investments of around USD 40 million.
Original source: NDF
Published on 04 June 2019