Northern Arc investment fund gets Rs 65 cr funding from BIO

Northern Arc Investment Managers (NAIM) on Friday said Belgian Investment Company for Developing Countries (BIO) has invested Rs 65 crore in its fund.

Belgian Investment Company for Developing Countries (BIO), a member of EDFI (European Development Finance Institutions), has invested Rs 65 crore in Northern Arc Impact India Fund (NAIIF), NAIM’s eighth fund, the company said in a release. “The investment will be used to support and address the funding gaps for impact enterprises (IE) through easy, reliable, and sustainable access to finance,” it said.

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NAIIF has a total corpus of Rs 700 crore raised from marquee investors, including domestic and international development financial institutions, global impact firms, domestic financial institutions, banks, among others. BIO’s investment in the fund brings together catalytic capital and capacity building, said Ravi Vukkadala, CEO – Northern Arc Investments. Carole Maman, Chief Investment Officer at BIO, said India has a large number of young people who are working hard to improve their lives and start businesses.

Strengthening the private sector through impact investing promotes fair work practices, gender equality, and combats poverty and climate change, which are the main obstacles to human progress, Maman said.