Accion Venture Lab, L.P. (FMO-55013)

Countries
  • United States of America
Geographic location where the impacts of the investment may be experienced.
Financial Institutions
  • Netherlands Development Finance Company (FMO)
International, regional and national development finance institutions. Many of these banks have a public interest mission, such as poverty reduction.
Project Status
Approved
Stage of the project cycle. Stages vary by development bank and can include: pending, approval, implementation, and closed or completed.
Bank Risk Rating
C
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
Apr 1, 2019
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.
Sectors
  • Finance
The service or industry focus of the investment. A project can have several sectors.
Investment Type(s)
Loan
The categories of the bank investment: loan, grant, guarantee, technical assistance, advisory services, equity and fund.
Investment Amount (USD)
$ 5.00 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.
Loan Amount (USD)
$ 5.00 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 @ FMO website

Updated in EWS Dec 7, 2023

Disclosed by Bank Nov 21, 2018


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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.

At the time of writing, the project description is no longer available on the FMO website.  However, the following information was previously disclosed:

 

WHO IS OUR PROSPECTIVE CLIENT?

Accion Venture Lab ("AVL") is a fintech venture capital fund, part of Accion International. AVL makes seed and early stage venture capital investments in fintech companies that employ business models to enhance financial inclusion for the underbanked and unbanked populations in emerging markets globally.

WHAT IS THE FUNDING OBJECTIVE?

FMO is the cornerstone investor in the fund and will help to catalyse capital to help AVL achieve its investment objective of ensuing financial returns and measurable social impact by making seed and early stage venture capital ("VC") investments in fintech companies that employ innovative business models to enhance financial inclusion for the underbanked and unbanked populations in emerging markets globally.

WHY DO WE WANT TO FUND THIS PROJECT?

The intended investment in is a strong fit with FMO's objectives to increase financial inclusion for unbanked populations, empower entrepreneurs and their local communities, to support innovation, and serve the un(der)banked populations in emerging markets.

ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIAL RATIONALE

The Environmental & Social category of AVL is C, since the Fund invests in early fintech companies operating in the real economy with limited environmental impacts

Investment Description
Here you can find a list of individual development financial institutions that finance the project.
Financial Intermediary
A financial intermediary is a bank or financial institution that receives funds from a development bank. A financial intermediary then lends these funds to their clients (private actors) in the form of loans, bonds, guarantees and equity shares. Financial intermediaries include insurance, pension and equity funds. The direct financial relationship is between the development bank and the financial intermediary.

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.

*No project contact information was provided at the time of disclosure.*

 

ACCOUNTABILITY MECHANISM OF FMO

Communities who believe they will be negatively affected by a project funded by the Dutch Development Bank (FMO) may be able to file a complaint with the Independent Complaints Mechanism, which is the joint independent accountability mechanism of the Dutch Development Bank (FMO) and the German Investment Corporation (KfW) . A complaint can be filed in writing, by email, post, or online. The complaint can be filed in English or any other language of the complainant. The Independent Complaints Mechanism is comprised of a three-member Independent Expert Panel and it can provide either problem-solving, compliance review or both, in either order. Additional information about this accountability mechanism, including a guide and template for filing a complaint, can be found at: https://www.fmo.nl/independent-complaints-mechanism

How it works

How it works