(Inter-American Development Bank) May 11, 2011 – The Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF) will invest up to $3 million in the Fondo de Capital Privado Inversor, a VC fund investing in companies with innovative, replicable and scalable business models to attend the Base of the Pyramid (BoP) population in Colombia, with the potential to achieve significant social and environmental impact.

The fund will be managed by Corporacion Inversor (GP), an initiative of Luis Gallo Restrepo from investment bank Estrategias Corporativas, Andrés Restrepo Londoño from the Fundación Diego y Lia, and Eduardo Elejalde, from private equity fund management firm LAEFM Colombia. These individuals grew the initiative to include 10 founding institutions representing leading social sector and financial sector actors, and 4 cooperating partners including important professional services firms, to help establish and attract resources to prove the thesis of impact investing through Venture Capital in Colombia, and the region at large.

The fund plans to raise $20 million, and has received support in its first close from a local investor base which includes the Colombian Government, an investment bank and foundations.

The fund will invest in up to 15 SMEs, with a focus on established companies with proven business models, with a clear market demand and significant growth perspectives. Among the sectors in which the funds will invest are agribusiness, basic infrastructure including water and housing, services and technologies providing access to basic services for the BoP, productive businesses within the value chain, and green technology.

Potential social and environmental impact will be an integral consideration within each investment, and will be sought through the company’s mission, operations and/or final products and services which involve or attend to the BoP population in Colombia. Based on the impact investment industry standard IRIS, relevant indicators shall be identified to assess social and environmental performance of the portfolio companies.

“BoP funds represent an important investment segment within Venture Capital in which we wish to focus on going forward and as such, MIF is delighted to support Colombia’s first vehicle targeting impact investments. Fondo Inversor underlines the importance of a strong combination between the social and financial sectors to align the financial, social and environmental goals of the fund“, said MIF project team leader Susana Garcia-Robles.

The Multilateral Investment Fund, a member of the Inter-American Development Bank Group, plays a leading role in the development of conducive ecosystems to finance entrepreneurship, and is an active investor in seed and venture capital funds in Latin America and the Caribbean; effectively creating a model of a Fund of Funds with development goals. The MIF focus is providing Access – Access to Basic Services, Access to Finance, Access to Markets and Capabilities- driven by the conviction that leveling the Access playing field is necessary in order to create more opportunity, spurring productive, equitable economic growth and providing a sustainable means of exiting poverty. In its 17 years of experience, the MIF has been an active investor supporting fifty five seed and venture funds and has created regional capacity through a network of partnerships and alliances with the public and private sector, including VC associations and fund managers.