Investments

Partner and vehicle description Real Impact partnership with Kiva to invest in Pacific creative arts

Real Impact has entered into an agreement with crowdsourcing platform KIVA to raise funding for creative arts enterprises from the Pacific.
Examples of businesses included the vehicle Cwakama, Pacific Primitive Arts, MAS Apma.
Intermediary REAL IMPACT connects the extraordinary artisan skills of informal economies to the global creative industries of fashion and interior design.
Country PNG
Alignment to investment thesis Capturing expanded value in the informal sector
Details of potential impact Collaboration with local artisans and their communities, building producer-retailer-consumer ecosystems to create a viable creative export industry.
Status To date US$50,000 has been raised in revolving capital for four creative arts enterprises.
Why is this capital appropriate for the Pacific? Creative arts enterprises are often informal, owned by women and lack access to finance – including working capital. Kiva crowd funds working capital provided to the enterprises in the form of short term flexible loans to meet the needs of these organisations
Partner and vehicle description Testing of a blended finance model: providing access to local debt (bank products) underwritten by grant finance. Vehicle design by Good Return
Example of businesses included in the vehicle Heilala Vanilla, Nishi Trading, Didds Fishing, Tupaghula Cocoa
Intermediary Good Return
Country Solomon Islands, Tonga, PNG, Fiji, Samoa
Alignment to investment thesis Capturing expanded value in the informal sector
Details of potential impact Good Return’s model supports access to appropriate finance for SMEs and informal enterprises that form part of supply chains of larger businesses in the Pacific. These micro-enterprises are ordinarily not able to access traditional finance.
Status To date, 4 vanilla farming families have been provided with 75,000 TOP in loans from Tonga Development Bank. Additional 4 loans are in assessment.
Why is this capital appropriate for the Pacific? Designed by Good Return this vehicle provides incentives to local banks to design products appropriate for SMEs who otherwise had no access to formal finance options.
Partner and vehicle description Ecosystem level investment into trade finance vehicle to facilitate a better functioning supply chain for enterprises producing menstrual health products. Designed by Pacific RISE
Businesses under the vehicle Menstrual Health producers in the Pacific
Intermediary partners Pacific RISE, Red Hat Impact, Lotus Impact, Criterion
40 small scale menstrual health enterprises who participated to the menstrual health workshop in late 2018. These enterprises are part of a community of practice which has been funded by WaterAid to grow and develop.
Country Pacific wide
Alignment to investment thesis Strength in domestic labour and purchasing power
Details of potential impact Reduced fabric and transportation costs which account for, in some cases, 90% of the costs of the business.
Status In design
Why is this capital appropriate for the Pacific? Menstrual health enterprises in the Pacific have high raw material costs due to lack of local options and high cost of transportation for materials. a trade finance solution could considerably reduce their business costs.
Partner and vehicle description Partnership with Pacific Businesses Sports Entrepreneurs (PBSE), an Australian based Pacific Island diaspora group to design a vehicle to move capital.
Businesses under the vehicle TBD based on application to the fund
Intermediary partners PBSE, Pacific Trade Invest, Australia, Pacific RISE, Criterion
Finance vehicle: – design of finance instrument to support Australian diaspora to invest in Pacific businesses

The fund is being backed by the Pacific Business Sports Entrepreneurs group members (4000 in NSW Australia). Potential to expand to other diaspora groups
Country Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, PNG
Alignment to investment thesis Strength in domestic labour and purchasing power
Details of potential impact Investment in a range of Pacific enterprises from $10,000 – $100,000
Status In design
Why is this capital appropriate for the Pacific? Australian (Sydney) based diaspora are already a strong source of capital for the Pacific Islands – currently in the form of remittances. This vehicle will be designed so that diaspora is able to make investments using the remittances.
Enterprise Name: Vinaka Enterprises
About The Vinaka Group was established to improve health outcomes for all Fijians and visiting tourists through the provision of laundry services to prevent disease, clean water through portable water treatment units, and improved sanitation and safe domestic energy from biodigesters.

Vinaka, through its intermediary partner Social Outcomes is seeking to raise capital through equity investment – the capital will be used to purchase equipment for the laundry and provide cash flow for the set-up period.
Country Fiji
Alignment to investment thesis Strength in domestic labour and purchasing power
Details of potential impact Improve health outcomes across Fiji, stable employment opportunities and environmental benefits.
Status Due Diligence in progress
Enterprise Name: Coconut Oil Production Santo Limited
About COPSL produces virgin coconut oil supplied by local farming families.
Country Vanuatu
Alignment to investment thesis Value chains producing unique quality
Details of potential impact Increase income for approximately 100 rural farming families on Espiritu Santo
Status Investment made
Enterprise Name: Ranadi Plantation
About Ranadi is Fiji’s largest organic ginger farm; it also grows turmeric, vanilla and a range of other agriculture products.

Ranadi is seeking debt and equity to expand its ginger processing and packaging facilities to four times the current capacity to meet global demand. Investing in Ranadi will contribute to addressing some of the key challenges of the agricultural sector in Fiji.

Ranadi plans to scale by sourcing from small grower groups across Fiji: acting as the hub for collecting and processing organic produce – this is expected to accelerate the uptake of organic farming practices and facilitate access to market for small farms.
Country Fiji
Alignment to investment thesis Value chains producing unique quality
Details of potential impact Increase income for factory employees and smallholder farmers and reduce environmental impact by expanding organic farming practices.
Status Investment readiness completed, seeking investment
Enterprise Name: Bula Coffee
About Bula Coffee is a New Zealand owned Fijian company sourcing coffee beans from the remote highlands of Fiji and processes them for domestic and export markets.

Bula Coffee is seeking debt investment to develop a coffee plant nursery; a purpose-built processing plant; and an agri-tourism venture in Fiji.
Country Fiji
Alignment to investment thesis Value chains producing unique quality
Details of potential impact Increase income for approximately 1,000 workers (mostly women) in rural areas and greater employment opportunities in the agricultural and tourism sectors.
Status Investment readiness completed, seeking investment
Enterprise Name: Essence of Fiji
About Essence of Fiji runs a beauty and spa school and produces a skincare range locally, expanding into sea grape skin and health products.

Working with The Difference Incubator (TDi) they are seeking equity and debt finance for expansion of spa premises and development.

This amount may change depending on the land valuation.
Country Fiji
Alignment to investment thesis Value chains producing unique quality
Details of potential impact Increase income for approximately 1,000 workers (mostly women) in rural areas and greater employment opportunities in the agricultural and tourism sectors.
Status Investment readiness completed; investment is pending

Why invest

For Pacific Islanders, social impact is not new. It is what the Pacific has always done.  It’s always been about caring for the next person and making a difference about the space that that they live in.  What’s changed, what’s shifted, is that the Pacific is looking at how it can become more sustainable with having more opportunities created for Pacific Islanders.

Opportunities for investment in the Pacific Islands are largely untapped.  Private sector businesses regularly tackle governance, social and environmental impacts in the course of their operations and the Pacific is fertile ground for innovative ideas.

Pacific RISE developed an investment thesis to guide interested investors to consider the future potential of the Pacific, and demonstrate with data and research, how that future can be achieved with impact investment in sectors such as agriculture, technology, transport and informal markets.

1. July 2016 ADB Pacific Economic Monitor
2. Creating Shared Value through Partnership, (2015) Ministerial Statement on engaging the Private Sector in Aid and Development

Tools