BlueOrchard Finance Ltd (BlueOrchard) has marked 20 years of impact investing.
BlueOrchard was founded in 2001, by a UN initiative, as the first commercial manager of microfinance debt investments worldwide. The company has evolved into a leading global impact investment manager, offering impact investment solutions across asset classes. The BlueOrchard Microfinance Fund is the world’s first and largest commercial microfinance fund with USD2.5 billion AuM.
BlueOrchard has also branched out into new asset classes such as Private Equity and Sustainable Infrastructure, leveraging its unique expertise in emerging markets and a long-standing core commitment to responsible development. As a professional investment manager and expert in innovative blended finance mandates, BlueOrchard has a sophisticated international investor base and is a trusted partner of leading global development finance institutions. Its multinational and diverse employee base is located mainly in emerging and frontier markets, with deep local expertise and maintaining extensive networks in the respective regions. Since 2019, BlueOrchard has been a member of the Schroders Group and is sharing and contributing to its objective to deliver positive outcomes for all.
Peter Fanconi, Chairman of the Board of BlueOrchard, says: “Since inception, BlueOrchard has successfully balanced generating lasting impact alongside attractive financial returns, proving that these can go hand in hand. It has been an incredible journey and we look forward to the next 20 years. We thank our partners globally for their continued trust in BlueOrchard.”
Philipp Mueller, CEO of BlueOrchard, says: “For two decades it has been BlueOrchard’s mission and vision to make impact investment solutions accessible to all and to advance the conscious use of capital which benefits society and the environment. We will continue on this path and meet investors’ demand for innovative and truly impactful strategies.”
Peter Harrison, Group Chief Executive Officer, Schroders, comments: “BlueOrchard is a wholly purpose driven organisation, and its work in microfinance and with development agencies has provided investors with robust financial returns but, most importantly, BlueOrchard has also demonstrably benefitted millions of people in emerging markets over the past two decades.
“Impact investing is now a mega trend but BlueOrchard has been pioneer in this field for 20 years. Schroders, a similar purpose driven organisation, is proud to work so closely with BlueOrchard and we are looking forward to collaborating as specialist impact-focused investors for another 20 years and beyond.”
