Press releases

responsAbility Investments, the Swiss asset manager specialising in development investments, has a new Chairman: Reto Schnarwiler, who has been a member of the Board of Directors of responsAbility since 2009, has been appointed as successor to Kaspar Müller, who had held the post of Chairman since 2005. 

responsAbility Investments is an Inaugural Signatory to the newly defined, globally applicable Guidelines for Investing in Responsible Digital Financial Inclusion. These Guidelines, an initiative co-led by the IFC and developed in collaboration with a group of over 50 fintech investors and digital financial innovators, aim to spread the benefits of the fintech revolution more widely.

responsAbility Investments is adding to its portfolio of investment products with the launch of a new private debt fund for sustainable agriculture in developing and emerging countries. The Luxembourg-domiciled fund finances successful companies that help to improve the economic livelihoods of the rural population. 

responsAbility Investments, a leading investor in the field of development investments, has fully exited from its indirect equity investment in MiBanco, Latin America’s largest microfinance bank by asset size, through a divestiture to majority shareholder Credicorp Ltd.

Zurich, 18 May, 2018 — The responsAbility-managed climate fund targeting emerging economies has seen a 48 % increase in funding commitments in 2017 which reached USD 500 m in early 2018, establishing the fund as an important player in the climate finance sector open to private investors. Total expected lifetime CO₂ reductions for all projects financed by the fund since inception reached 10 m tonnes.

Zurich, 10 April, 2018 — Two responsAbility-managed debt funds and d.light, a global leader in delivering affordable solar-powered solutions to households in emerging markets, have signed an agreement for a USD 10 m working capital loan. The financing is designed to help scale d.light’s pay-as-you-go solar home system business.

Zurich, London, Nairobi, 13 March, 2018 — A responsAbility-managed energy company focusing on Sub-Sahara Africa and Africa Growth and Energy Solutions (AGES) have signed an agreement to co-develop a 25 MW solar PV project in Sierra Leone’s Bo District. The project is to be built in two phases, with construction on a 5 MW plant intended to start in 2018.

Zurich, 6 February 2018 — Food security, the creation of employment and the promotion of CO2-conscious practices: These are the objectives of a new public-private partnership that has been established to give agricultural companies in developing countries access to the expertise they urgently require. A responsAbility investment fund for fair agriculture, in which the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) has invested CHF 1 million to fund Technical Assistance, will establish links to the targeted companies through its network.

Zurich, 1 February, 2018 — responsAbility Investments AG, a leading investor in the field of development investments in emerging markets, announced that it has recently completely divested its equity investment in Financiera Confianza, one of the main microfinance institutions in Peru, by selling its stake to majority shareholder Fundación Microfinanzas BBVA (BBVA Microfinance Foundation).

Zurich, 15 January 2018 — A responsAbility-managed private equity vehicle focusing on agriculture and food has completed its first investment and taken a significant minority stake in Samunnati, an Indian Non Banking Financial Company. Using a unique cash-flow-based lending technology for value chains, Samunnati is providing affordable quality financial services for small and marginal farmers and small and medium-sized businesses active across the agriculture value chain.