CALMEADOW'S CAPITAL INITIATIVES
Following our experience in supporting the successful development of Bancosol in Bolivia in the early 1990s,
we joined ACCION and others in the organization of ProFund Internacional S.A., a regional Latin American investment company with US$22,000,000 in capital. With investments ranging from US$250,000 to US$3,000,000 and holdings of 15 to 30% in twelve different microfinance institutions, ProFund indirectly supported over 300,000 microentrepreneurs. While this is an impressive number, the magnitude of the remaining challenge is clear. There are over 50 million microenterprises in Latin America and the Caribbean, employing more than 120 million individuals and accounting for 60% of the region’s GNP. In the face of this, we are convinced that creating and supporting successful and sustainable institutions as models of success is the only effective way to bring in mainstream commercial participation. Only then can we expect to see access to financial services for all.
CALMEADOW was a shareholder of ProFund, as well as being represented on the board and the investment committee, and CALMEADOW’s past Chair, Martin Connell, was Chairman of the Board of ProFund.
CALMEADOW, again working with ACCION as co-sponsor and with the valuable support of nine different institutional shareholders, launched in the third quarter of 2001 a new regional investment fund for African microfinance, AfriCap Microfinance Fund Ltd. Encouraged by the growth of the microfinance sector in Africa and by the obvious needs for financial services for the low-income small and micro enterprises, AfriCap is now operating the fund out of Johannesburg, South Africa. In addition to its US$13,500,000 in capital, AfriCap operates a US$3,000,000 Technical Services Facility funded by three institutions to provide the specialized expertise needed to support prospective and actual investees.
CALMEADOW DOWNSCALING AND MARKET DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVES