Switzerland, 29 July 2020

BlueOrchard announces USD 80 million final closing of the IIF Private Equity Sub-Fund

Swiss impact investment manager BlueOrchard Finance Ltd (BlueOrchard) is announcing the final close of the InsuResilience Investment Fund (IIF) Private Equity Sub-Fund, a first of its kind initiative to improve access to climate insurance across the developing world. The fund has already made six investments across emerging markets, helping to protect more than 20 million poor and vulnerable people from the effects of climate change.

Read the news release on BlueOrchard website.

Switzerland, 20 May 2020

Open Society’s impact investing arm, the Soros Economic Development Fund (SEDF), has committed USD 10 million to the InsuResilience Investment Fund (IIF), an initiative set up by KfW Development Bank on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and managed by BlueOrchard. 

Catherine Cax, SEDF’s Director of Investments said: “The InsuResilience Investment Fund is the only entirely private sector initiative within this broader effort to expand affordable insurance to those who are most at risk from the threat of climate change. We hope to contribute to a success story that will serve as a catalyst to bring other private sector investment into this critical area. While initiated before COVID-19, this investment speaks to the moment by supporting vulnerable communities that are already disproportionally at risk.”

You can access the news release on BlueOrchard website.

Tajikistan, 26 March 2020

IIF investee Eskhata shares their lessons learnt

IIF offered technical assistance (TA) services to its then investee Eskhata Bank in Tajikistan. The client wished to launch agricultural insurance for smallholder farmers in Tajikistan. This would be first of its kind in Tajikistan, so we were moving into new and relatively unknown territory. After a year of technical services and great efforts from our client and the consultant, Eskhata decided to put the project on hold. It has been a tremendous learning opportunity for both Eskhata and IIF, and the key findings are summarised here. Should you have any questions, feel free to reach out to our TA team at CelsiusPro.

Armenia, 26 November 2019

Armenia introduces agricultural insurance on the back of InsuResilience Investment Fund (IIF) and KfW support

Armenia is at the dawn of a new era. The country has introduced in October 2019 agricultural insurance to protect poor small farmers against weather and climate risks, thereby helping to make them economically more successful. The sale of the first policies recently got underway. Products are now available in six regions of the country to protect grape and apricot growing from hail, spring frost and fires. The insurance is aimed at low-income households with independent farms. In the medium term, insurance policies will be offered throughout the entire country, including other crops.

With the financial and technical support from KfW and IIF, Armenia developed agricultural insurance products. Furthermore, IIF offered additional funding for the insurance premiums from its dedicated Premium Support Facility. The government hopes that this will not only bring more stable earnings for small farmers who receive compensation from their insurance policies in the event of storms but will also improve their credit standing. This will enable small farmers to invest in their farms through loans and modernize Armenian agriculture as a whole. To read the full story, please click here.

Lagos, 22 July 2019

A recent article by Business Today Nigeria says that over 1 million farmers stand to benefit from IIF Investment in Royal Exchange. To read the full story, please click here.

Zurich, 18 July 2019

The InsuResilience Investment Fund, set up on behalf of the German government by KfW and managed by Swiss based Impact Investment Manager BlueOrchard Finance, will be acquiring a 39.25% stake in Lagos-based Royal Exchange General Insurance Company Limited. Royal Exchange General Insurance is one of the largest non-life insurance companies in Nigeria. Through its activities, the company is expected to reach out to more than 1 million farmers by 2025. For further information, please click here.

Turin, 10 July 2019

InsuResilience Investment Fund (IIF) is a proud sponsor of ILO’s 2019’s Impact Insurance Academy. The weeklong training took place in Turin, Italy, in the second half of July. IIF sponsored the participation of 8 IIF investees from across the continents: Ecuador, Nigeria, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Israel, Armenia, Pakistan, India. More than 60 Academy participants assisted on lectures and elective courses on insurance. IIF’s chair Stefan Hirche, CelsiusPro’s Alban Desnos and Blue Orchard’s Veronika Giusti-Keller jointly presented on impact insurance for climate change adaptation. At the end of the Academy, Stefan Hirche presided a diner for all IIF investees participating in the Academy – a nice occasion to network and share experience amongst IIF investees. To learn more, please click here.

Zurich, 24 May 2019

The InsuResilience Investment Fund will invest USD 6mn in Tel Aviv-based Agritask. Agritask is a leading Ag-tech company providing data-driven decision support tools for end-to-end agronomic management of businesses throughout the agriculture eco-system. Through its global activities, the company is expected to reach out to more than 25 million farmers by 2025. For further information, please click here.

Zurich, 25 September 2018

Climate insurance schemes for poor and vulnerable households and micro, small and medium enterprises – read IIF Success Stories here

Zurich, 24 August 2018

InsuResilience Investment Fund to provide new set of rainfall data for parametric insurance in Latin America. For further information, please click here.

Zurich, 18 December 2017

The InsuResilience Investment Fund, set up on behalf of the German government by KfW and managed by Swiss based Impact Investment Manager BlueOrchard Finance, has acquired a 26.8% stake in Noida-based Skymet Weather Services Private Ltd. Skymet is India’s largest weather monitoring and agri-risk solutions company to the insurance and financial sectors. Through its activities, the company is reaching out to more than 2,000,000 farmers. For further information, please click here.

Zurich, 21 September 2017

The InsuResilience Investment Fund set up by the German development bank KFW and managed by Swiss based Impact Investment Manager BlueOrchard Finance, has entered into an agreement to acquire a significant minority stake in Lahore-based Asia Insurance Company Ltd, a general insurance company offering agriculture insurance to over 100,000 farmers in Pakistan. For further information, please click here.

Zurich, 14 July 2017

The BlueOrchard managed InsuResilience Investment Fund, an evolved version of the Climate Insurance Fund, has been launched in Luxembourg as a public-private partnership. The Fund combines two separately investible Debt and Equity Sub-Funds and provides first loss protection to private investors. The mandate underlines BlueOrchard’s commitment as a leading impact investing manager. For further information, please click here.