ISC- Anchorless (IFC-45508)

Regions
  • South Asia
Geographic location where the impacts of the investment may be experienced.
Countries
  • Bangladesh
Geographic location where the impacts of the investment may be experienced.
Financial Institutions
  • International Finance Corporation (IFC)
International, regional and national development finance institutions. Many of these banks have a public interest mission, such as poverty reduction.
Project Status
Active
Stage of the project cycle. Stages vary by development bank and can include: pending, approval, implementation, and closed or completed.
Bank Risk Rating
U
Environmental and social categorization assessed by the development bank as a measure of the planned project’s environmental and social impacts. A higher risk rating may require more due diligence to limit or avoid harm to people and the environment. For example, "A" or "B" are risk categories where "A" represents the highest amount of risk. Results will include projects that specifically recorded a rating, all other projects are marked ‘U’ for "Undisclosed."
Voting Date
Nov 8, 2021
Date when project documentation and funding is reviewed by the Board for consideration and approval. Some development banks will state a "board date" or "decision date." When funding approval is obtained, the legal documents are accepted and signed, the implementation phase begins.
Borrower
ANCHORLESS PARTNERS LLC
A public entity (government or state-owned) provided with funds or financial support to manage and/or implement a project.
Sectors
  • Finance
The service or industry focus of the investment. A project can have several sectors.
Investment Type(s)
Equity
The categories of the bank investment: loan, grant, guarantee, technical assistance, advisory services, equity and fund.
Investment Amount (USD)
$ 1.50 million
Value listed on project documents at time of disclosure. If necessary, this amount is converted to USD ($) on the date of disclosure. Please review updated project documents for more information.
Project Cost (USD)
$ 30.00 million
Value listed on project documents at time of disclosure. If necessary, this amount is converted to USD ($) on the date of disclosure. Please review updated project documents for more information.
Primary Source

Original disclosure @ IFC website

Updated in EWS May 22, 2022

Disclosed by Bank Feb 23, 2022

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Project Description
If provided by the financial institution, the Early Warning System Team writes a short summary describing the purported development objective of the project and project components. Review the complete project documentation for a detailed description.

According to IFC, the peoposed project is considering an investment of US$1.5 million through IFC Startup Catalyst, as well as a US$1.5 million International Development Association Private Sector Window Blended Finance Facility (“IDA PSW BFF”) investment into Anchorless Fund, LP (the “Fund”), an early-stage VC fund focused on seed stage investments in technology companies in Bangladesh. The fund will be managed by Anchorless Management, LLC (the “Manager”). Rahat Ahmed and Daniel McMurtrie are the two key partners who will be managing the Fund.

People Affected By This Project
People Affected By This Project refers to the communities of people likely to be affected positively or negatively by a project.

The Project follows the AIMM (Development Impact) Rating for the Startup Catalyst Envelope. IFC anticipates that the Project would result in increased access to seed stage equity for digital startups in Bangladesh, an IDA country with a nascent digital entrepreneurship ecosystem. The Project is also expected to increase the ability for startups, of which at least 20 percent are targeted to have women founders, to succeed and scale digital businesses, through the Fund’s mentorship and window for follow-on funding.

Beyond the Project, this investment is expected to contribute to creating the start-up ecosystem and venture capital market in Bangladesh by demonstrating the commercial viability of the VC fund model in the country, and more broadly, investing in Bangladeshi startups. IFC’s support also enables creation of a constant and quality pipeline of investment opportunities that investors at Series A stage and beyond depend upon.

Investment Description
Here you can find a list of individual development financial institutions that finance the project.

The Fund is seeking to raise US$30.0 million in capital commitments. IFC has proposed an equity investment of the lesser of US$3.0 million and 20% of the total fund size, split equally between IFC and IDA PSW. The IFC portion of up to US$1.5 million will be invested in the senior tranche through Startup Catalyst and a matching up to US$1.5 million will be invested in the junior tranche through IDA PSW Startup Catalyst Frontier Markets.

Private Actors Description
A Private Actor is a non-governmental body or entity that is the borrower or client of a development project, which can include corporations, private equity and banks. This describes the private actors and their roles in relation to the project, when private actor information is disclosed or has been further researched.

Anchorless Fund I LP, is structured as a limited partnership domiciled in Delaware, United States of America. The General Partner is Anchorless Partners LLC, a company incorporated with limited liability in New York, United States of America. Rahat Ahmed and Daniel McMurtie own Anchorless Partners, LLC.


Contact Information
This section aims to support the local communities and local CSO to get to know which stakeholders are involved in a project with their roles and responsibilities. If available, there may be a complaint office for the respective bank which operates independently to receive and determine violations in policy and practice. Independent Accountability Mechanisms receive and respond to complaints. Most Independent Accountability Mechanisms offer two functions for addressing complaints: dispute resolution and compliance review.

Rahat Ahmed,

Founding Partner and CEO

rahat@anchorless.vc.

ACCESS TO INFORMATION

You can submit a request for information disclosure at: https://disclosures.ifc.org/#/inquiries

If you believe that your request for information from IFC has been unreasonably denied, or that this Policy has been interpreted incorrectly, you can submit a complaint at the link above to IFC's Access to Information Policy Advisor, who reports directly to IFC's Executive Vice President.

ACCOUNTABILITY MECHANISM OF IFC/MIGA

The Compliance Advisor Ombudsman (CAO) is the independent complaint mechanism and fact-finding body for people who believe they are likely to be, or have been, adversely affected by an IFC or MIGA- financed project. If you submit a complaint to the CAO, they may assist you in resolving a dispute with the company and/or investigate to assess whether the IFC is following its own policies and procedures for preventing harm to people or the environment. If you want to submit a complaint electronically, you can email the CAO at CAO@worldbankgroup.org You can learn more about the CAO and how to file a complaint at http://www.cao-ombudsman.org

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How it works