LeapFrog Investments has raised $700m in its largest-ever private equity fund by a dedicated impact fund manager, surging past its $600m target.
The new is expected to reach 700 million consumers in emerging markets The new fund invests in healthcare and financial services companies – tapping into the demand from billions of emerging consumers in Asia and Africa.
According to Dr. Andrew Kuper, Founder and CEO of LeapFrog Investments, “Today’s announcement marks an unprecedented level of commitment to independent impact investment managers, with a new fund backed by diverse best-in-class institutional investors. It also marks an important moment for responsible private equity. As our third fund and largest fund, it is a decisive demonstration that meeting the real needs of underserved people is great business.”
LeapFrog has invested in 26 businesses to date and the companies now reach 168 million people across 35 countries with healthcare or financial services. Over 136 million of those individuals are emerging consumers – defined by The World Bank as living on under $10 a day. Most are accessing quality insurance, savings, pensions, credit, remittances, medicines or healthcare services for the first time.
LeapFrog’s new fund has already been invested into WorldRemit, a digital remittances provider globally; NeoGrowth which provides innovative unsecured-credit products to MSMEs across India. Goodlife Pharmacy chain, a provider of healthcare services in East Africa. Pyramid Pharma, a distributor of medicines and diagnostic and surgical equipment across Africa and Ascent Meditech which manufactures and delivers orthopaedic products across India.
The new fundraise will take LeapFrog to $1.6bn of total commitments, sustaining its position as the largest private equity manager entirely dedicated to impact investing.
The fund was raised by Admiral, AIG, AXA XL, Everest Re, Hannover Re, Prudential Financial, QBE and Zurich, Ascension Capital, TIAA-Nuveen (USA), Kempen, Partners Group Impact, Christian Super and HESTA, DEG, IFC and Proparco, OPIC, Merck, PactWorld, the Ford Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation.
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