Deetken Impact is honored to be featured in Latimpacto’s “Social Investment and Impact: Case Studies and Trends in Latin America” initiative as part of the 57 case studies developed to explore trends and innovative success stories in the impact investment sector.
In the category of “Blended Finance”, this case study explores how Deetken Impact uses innovative fund structures to manage investment risk while deepening social, environmental, and gender impacts. This approach has become core to our investment strategy as we recognize that while there is a strong demand for investment vehicles with a gender lens approach, investors have different levels of risk appetite based on investment markets, sectors and business stage. While some investors prefer highly diversified portfolios generating predictable cash flows, others seek to have a more catalytic impact by focusing their investments on a specific country or lending support to earlier-stage businesses or projects. Additionally, there has been an increased risk perception of the Latin American & Caribbean region within the investor community driven by socio political instability as well as economic shocks and uncertainty during the COVID-19 pandemic.
We have deep experience structuring innovative investment vehicles, from low-risk impact bonds for individuals to first-loss facilities that catalyze investment in new markets. Blended finance can also take form through business support services such as technical assistance and knowledge transfer. Two examples of this are the USAID-supported Ilu Women’s Empowerment Program and the Investment, Enterprise, and Sustainability Program that enable us to de-risk investments, strengthen gender business practices, and expand social and environmental impacts. The case study explores how, in partnership with Pro Mujer, we incorporated first-loss capital to the Ilu Women’s Empowerment Fund, a strategy that ultimately provided greater security to investors, allowing us to expand the fund by USD 5.8 million after the pandemic.
We all have much to learn from the variety and depth of the case studies developed by Latimpacto. To read more, visit: https://www.ecosistema.latimpacto.org/deetken-impact