March 21, 2018

Impact Terra, a Myanmar-based fintech startup that offers personalized advice and services to smallholder farmers in that country, has secured $3 million in grants from two foreign funds aimed at reducing poverty in the region. As reported in DealStreet Asia, the agencies are Geodata for Agriculture and Water (G4AW), a grant program of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Singapore-based Leap201.

Farmers are Connected, but Need Data

According to materials from G4AW, 80-plus percent of farmers and retailers in Myanmar’s major agriculture regions have smart phones and are connected to the internet. This allows Impact Terra to share timely data on risk factors such as pests, drought/floods and weather, along with geo-data driven insights into crop growth and soil moisture, through its “Golden Paddy” platform. The app also includes market data such as pricing and mechanisms for payments, allowing farmers to better manage their finances.

Investors Take Notice

Impact investing isn’t just for the government and non-profit sectors. Return-driven investors also are seeing the value of deals that can realize social change while gaining competitive returns for its investors.

Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS) Wealth Management announced in August of last year that it had raised US$325 million from its high net worth investors for investment into its social impact private equity fund, The Rise Fund. Launched in 2007, the US$2 billion Rise Fund focuses on seven sectors: agriculture and food; education; energy; financial services; healthcare; technology; and infrastructure.

According to the Global Impact Investing Network, impact investing fund managers are seeing significant interest from most investor types, especially foundations, family offices, and banks, and growing interest from sovereign wealth funds, pension funds, and insurance companies. These investors are largely seeking risk-adjusted market returns and the performance of those investments is meeting expectations. The same survey found that investors planned to commit $25.9 billion in assets to impact investment deals in 2017, a 17 percent increase from the year before.

By David Nitchman, GAI Media