- Despite the pandemic, investments grew by 361% (YoY, Q4 ‘19 – Q4 ‘20) and positively impacted 16.5 million lives.
- Capria’s network of 14 Fund managers have built assets under management, or AUM, worth USD 456 million, and invested in companies with presence in 56 countries.
- Capria will increase its focus on direct investments along with its local partners across Global South in 2021–22.
Capria Ventures, a global investor with the largest network of fund managers in emerging markets, termed as the Global South, has released its annual impact report. According to the report, Capria and its affiliated network of funds have invested USD 92.1 million as of December 2020, impacting 16.5 million lives across regions despite the pandemic-induced setbacks. Capria’s network of 14 Fund managers have invested USD 92.1 million in early stage startups spread across 56 countries as of Dec ‘2020.
“Capria is delivering market rate returns while also creating impact through its investments in the Global South, specifically, in the tech hubs of Latin America, Africa, India, and SE Asia. After a year like 2020, our work has never been more important. While the planet was going through an existential crisis, Capria’s global network of fund managers continued their investing programs, supporting startups that were instrumental in delivering digital education to families in lockdown, operating logistics networks for goods delivery, offering remote diagnostics for COVID-19, and many other essential services,” said Will Poole, Managing Partner and Co-founder, Capria Ventures. “In addition to continuing to deploy capital to startups, we were pleased to see our aggregate impact climb to more than 16 million individuals. With most of our investments going into early stage startups, we’re just getting going,” he added.
Capria’s flagship USD 57 million Capria Fund invests exclusively in and alongside Capria Network partner funds. The fund is backed by leading investors such as International Finance Corporation (IFC), the investment arm of the World Bank; Vulcan Capital, the multi-billion-dollar investment arm of the late Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Paul Allen; Gates Ventures, the private office of Bill Gates; Ford Foundation, an American private foundation and Omidyar Network, among others.
Regions and revenue
In Latin America, the firm has partnered with venture capital funds such as Angel Ventures, SP Ventures, Fen Ventures, Adobe Capital, and Pomona Impact. In Africa and the Middle East, Capria has partnered with funds such as Lateral Capital, Atlantica Ventures, Wuri Ventures, and our newest partner, Global Ventures.
In South and Southeast Asia, Capria has a deep presence through Arkam Ventures, Unitus Ventures, Genesis Alternative Ventures, and the latest partner AC Ventures in Indonesia.
A healthy majority of the capital invested was across five countries in the Latin American region where, compared to the USD 7.1 million invested as of December 2019, a whopping USD 42.6 million was invested across 38 companies in 2020 alone.
The South and Southeast Asian market continues to be the second-best growth market for Capria with an investment of USD 35.5 million as of December 2020, a growth of 361% over the previous year. The investment was infused in 27 companies across four countries in the regions.
In SSA and MENA, the fund managers invested USD 2.5 million in 21 companies across five countries in 2020, increasing cumulative capital deployed by 57% over 2019.
The portfolio of 86 companies in Capria Network has collectively generated USD 469 million in revenues as of December 31, 2020, clocking 212% growth year over 2019. The network has invested a total USD 92.1 million as of December 2020, a meteoric 361% jump from the USD 20 million as of December 2019.
Lives impacted: 16.5 million
A unifying measure of impact at Capria is in terms of the number of lives touched. The raging pandemic is estimated to have pushed an additional 88 million, that is 115 million people globally – into extreme poverty through 2020, with the total rising to as many as 150 million by the end of 2021, as per an October 2020 study by the World Bank. In such a year, Capria Network funds, through their portfolio companies, created 6.3K active jobs and impacted the lives of 16.5 million people, of which almost 20% are women.
ESG: An essential cog in the wheel
Apart from ensuring its network of funds invest in companies that create an impact, Capria places great emphasis on ensuring every company is aligned with global best Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) standards. Capria is proud to announce that 94% of network funds have institutionalised anti-corruption policies and every fund we invest in puts in place processes to screen companies based on ESG risks and IFC’s exclusion list.
Company Direct Investments
The fund has also made some direct investments in companies such as Agrofy, the #1 LatAm marketplace increasing productivity and profits of agribusiness; MentalUp, a game-based learning platform for children present in multiple countries; HomeAgent, the first home-based call center operation in Brazil; Mesfix, a multi-sided platform bringing the first crowd factoring and online market for invoices receivable in Colombia.
Using its unparalleled reach, Capria intends to create impact in the Global South through direct investments along with its partners and capture alpha for its investors.
