Kiva Capital
Unlocking scalable impact investments for financial inclusion
Kiva Capital envisions a financially-inclusive world where all people, regardless of socioeconomic status, have access to reliable and scalable capital. Established in 2019 as a subsidiary of Kiva, Kiva Capital is an asset manager that supports underserved communities with impact-first capital. By leveraging a unique global lending network of financial services providers and social enterprises, Kiva Capital seeks to provide investors with deep financial inclusion and social enterprise impact alongside financial returns.
Kiva Capital Investment Focus
Expanding opportunities to underserved markets globally, Kiva Capital leverages the impact mission, network, and global brand of Kiva to provide catalytic, private investment solutions to expand financial inclusion.
Kiva Capital actively addresses challenges faced by communities often left out of traditional markets, with particular focuses on displaced populations, small businesses, and women:
Gender Equity
Financial inclusion is fundamental to gender equity. However, as global crises compound, estimates show that the current rate of progress towards global gender parity has backslid. Through the development of an impact-first, gender-lens investment strategy, Kiva Capital aims to activate private sector capital to support gender equity globally.
Through a partnership with USAID, Kiva Capital is developing a gender investment strategy aligned with the 2X Challenge criteria which seeks to advance women’s economic empowerment and financial resiliency. Through this strategy, Kiva Capital aims to support financial service providers and social enterprises committed to improving gender equity across their practices, policies, and products.
Displaced Populations
Nearly 90 million people are displaced from their homes worldwide, with this number expected to reach 300 million by 2030 if trends continue. Though immediate humanitarian aid is critical for refugee communities, economic opportunity is needed for longer-term stability. Yet, most refugees are financially excluded due to perceived risk. Mobilizing institutional capital through the Kiva Refugee Investment Fund (KRIF), Kiva Capital seeks to scale refugee lending and support displaced populations in emerging markets while generating financial returns for investors. KRIF builds on Kiva.org’s work demonstrating that refugee financing is a viable and scalable investment strategy.
Small Business Resilience
Micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) represent about 90% of businesses and more than 50% of employment worldwide. However, MSMEs in emerging markets and developing countries cite access to finance as a key constraint for growth. The California Rebuilding Fund, of which Kiva Capital is the administrator, aims to address the capital and advisory needs of California’s small businesses as they reopen and recover from the COVID-19 health and economic crisis and focuses on historically under-resourced communities. Mobilizing institutional capital to financial service providers, Kiva Capital also partnered with Google in 2021 to launch the Small Business Resilience Fund (SBRF). Facilitating a critical flow of capital to MSMEs affected by the COVID-19 crisis in Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), and Southeast Asia, SBRF was established to support MSME growth and resilience in targeted countries as they recover from the economic effects of COVID.
Kiva Capital Investment Process
By combining a rigorous, top-down country assessment with in-depth, bottom-up company due diligence, Kiva Capital’s investment process seeks to identify potential investees with strong financial and operational sustainability. Alongside financial and operational strengths, our investment process also integrates selection and screening criteria on impact alignment of prospective investees with respect to our dedicated thematic theory of change.
At Kiva Capital, our commitment to impact is integrated into every step of the investment life cycle and is supported by our robust proprietary impact measurement and management systems.
Kiva Capital is a signatory of the Operating Principles for Impact Management (OPIM). To learn more about Kiva Capital’s commitment to robust impact measurement and management, please see our 2022 OPIM Disclosure Statement.
Deepening Impact through Technical Assistance
To strengthen the impact of its investees’ operations, services, and products, Kiva Capital seeks to pair its investments with technical assistance to increase potential impact. Technical assistance in the form of digitization, new product design, borrower data collection, entrepreneurship training, client protection policies, and a range of additional services helps to equip Kiva Capital lending partners to better support their customers and deepen their impact in the communities they serve.
Kiva Capital Investment Spotlight: FATEN
Palestine for Credit & Development (FATEN) is a non-profit organization that provides micro and small loans to entrepreneurs in Palestine. In February of 2009, FATEN posted their first loan on Kiva.org with a gross loan portfolio (GLP) of $12.5M. Over the course of 13 years of partnership with Kiva, FATEN’s GLP has since grown to $110M and the majority of the $30M raised by FATEN on the Kiva crowdfunding platform has been used to serve refugees. As the organization grew to become the main source of lending to Palestinian refugees, investing in FATEN through the Kiva Refugee Investment Fund (KRIF) was a welcomed next step for the partnership. In Q3 2021, KRIF disbursed $3M to FATEN to further support the expansion of refugee lending in Palestine. Kiva Capital estimates that this $3M loan will reach over 1,000 refugee borrowers.
“The caliber of this year’s IA 50 lists is a product of the rigorous application scoring and analysis process that the IA 50 Review Committee has fine-tuned through the years. We’re thrilled to foster the continuing growth of these unique, innovative investing approaches addressing critical issues from climate to racial equity and gender equality.”
– Sandra Osborne Kartt, CFA, Managing Director, Investments, ImpactAssets
IA 50 2022 Review Committee Member
Leveraging Kiva’s Global Network
Currently, lending to underserved populations occurs through a broad spectrum of institutions, ranging from small, donor-supported non-profit organizations to fully regulated deposit-taking financial institutions. Leveraging Kiva’s well-established global network, Kiva Capital makes private debt investments in financial service providers (FSPs) and innovative social enterprises (SEs) operating in emerging markets committed to delivering meaningful financial services and products to underserved populations. Often, these mission-oriented FSPs and SEs serve as the first providers of basic services to the underserved, many of whom are the primary drivers of jobs in emerging markets.
Kiva Capital leverages Kiva’s nearly 20 year history of investing to advance financial inclusion, globally. Since its founding, Kiva has facilitated over $1.7B in capital to over 4 million borrowers, and has underwritten 200+ financial service providers and 90+ social enterprises. The Kiva team is located in strategic regions around the globe and has executed transactions in over 90 countries.
Contact Us
Kiva Capital partners with a range of impact investors and philanthropic organizations to advance shared goals. To learn more about Kiva Capital, please contact investorrelations@kiva.org.
No Offer of Securities: Under no circumstances should any material at this site be used or considered as an offer to sell or a solicitation of any offer to buy an interest in any investment fund managed by Kiva Capital Management. Any such offer or solicitation will be made only by means of a Confidential Private Placement Memorandum relating to the particular fund. Access to information about the funds is limited to investors who qualify as “accredited investors” within the meaning of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and who are capable of evaluating the merits and risks of prospective investments. We do not make any representations as to the accuracy or completeness of the information contained on this website and undertake no obligation to update the information.
