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Impact strategy and reporting for AfricInvest

Shape Created with Sketch. MENA, MENA, Sub-Sahara Afrika, Sub-Saharan Africa

We worked with AfricInvest and its Cathay AfricInvest Innovation Fund on their impact strategy and reporting

AfricInvest is a Tunis based investment platform that manages alternative asset classes with several lines of businesses, including private equity, venture capital, private credit and asset management. The platform offers financing for companies in Africa at various development stages. Cathay AfricInvest Innovation Fund (CAIF) is a Venture Capital arm of AfricInvest and Cathay Innovation, and the first Pan-African late-stage venture fund. CAIF invests in early to growthstage start-ups that are improving African lives by providing disruptive tech-enabled products and services.

As impact investor, it is critical for AfricInvest and CAIF to communicate a clear impact strategy, and have the right systems in place to measure and manage impact. Therefore, AfricInvest reached out to Steward Redqueen to:

  • refine AfricInvest’s impact strategy via the development of a Theory of Change, and based on this create an impact outlook report, and;
  • draft a Theory of Change and supportingimpact management and measurement framework, and investor report for CAIF.

For AfricInvest we developed a Theory of change that covers all of the platform’s activities and impact themes. From there, we built an outlook report, based on data points provided from AfricInvest’s funds and internal and external interviews. The final report aggregates 2021 impact performance, qualitative case studies and deep-dive insights on AfricInvest’s impact themes, such as quality jobs through upskilling or access to essential goods and services through food security;

For CAIF, we engaged in market study in which we interviewed around 20 DFIs and impact investors on their requirements and expectations on impact management, and market trends they observe and anticipate to increase in importance going forward. At the same time, we held several workshops with the CAIF team and the AfricInvest Responsible Investment team, in which we developed the Fund’s impact narrative, and evidence based KPI framework. Then we supported CAIF in drafting their impact report, to be shared with the fund’s LPs. Finally, we engaged in trainings to ensure all team members understand the framework and can engage with investors and investees on internal processes and data collection.

Both projects help AfricInvest and CAIF to sharpen their narrative and substantiate their impact communication with quantifiable insights.