SDG Frontier Fund reaches final close

The SDG Frontier Fund, set up at the initiative of BIO, the Belgian Investment Company for Developing Countries, has reached its final closing for a total fund size of €36 million, thanks to the participation of four additional Belgian private investors, including Ghent University and Ethias. The fund aims to support sustainable economic growth in African and Asian frontier markets and to offer an attractive financial return.

The SDG Frontier Fund is a self-managed co-investment vehicle that invests jointly with BIO in private equity funds operating in Africa and Asia. The fund is a BIO initiative and also draws on BIO’s extensive expertise of 20 years. The SDG Frontier Fund aims to invest in 10 to 12 funds, which in turn will invest in a dozen local small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). In this way, more than a hundred SMEs will receive support from the fund. This investment fund is the first of its kind in Belgium and offers a unique counter-cyclical opportunity to diversify an investor’s portfolio.

The fund operates as an ”impact fund”, meaning that it seeks to generate significant and measurable beneficial development impact combined with financial return. The fund also contributes to the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). Compliance with international environmental, social and governance standards by the portfolio funds and their local investees is an integral part of the investment policy. The SDG Frontier Fund is a concrete example of how a fund can work as a catalyst to mobilise private funds for developing countries.

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