MCE MESA Fund
Snapshot
Fund Type: Blended senior/subordinate debt
Fund Size: $41.6M
Investment Stage: Emerging ($500k-$4MM tickets) to enterprises/to financial intermediaries
Geographic Focus: Global emerging markets
Sector Focus: Sustainable Agriculture
Fund Overview
The agriculture sector in emerging markets currently faces a $200+ billion funding gap. Most of the world’s poorest people work in agriculture, making it a critical sector for poverty alleviation, with
the potential to simultaneously provide climate solutions and economic opportunities for women. Traditional debt sources and equity are currently falling short. To address this gap, MCE’s Empowering Sustainable Agriculture (MESA) fund invests directly and indirectly via microfinance organizations and fintechs to scale enterprises in local communities, enhance the climate resilience of smallholder farmers, and empower women throughout the agricultural sector in ten emerging market countries. MESA invests in sustainable agriculture and in mitigation, adaptation and resilience solutions for rural farmers across the agricultural value chain, including in waste, water and renewable energy.
Since 2006, MCE has invested over $300MM in organizations serving smallholder farmers in Africa and Latin America, and its portfolio companies now serve over 12 million people. Through MESA, they plan to finance approximately 35 agribusinesses and finance organizations over the next nine years.
Why We Invested
We are deeply impressed by the intentionality with which MCE Social Capital integrates a gender lens into their work, and their commitment to further develop the MESA Fund's investment thesis at the nexus of climate and gender. We are thrilled to be a partner to them in exploring the impact of a fully integrated climate and gender lens across the agricultural value chain.
Women as Agents of Change
MESA investee Community Markets for Conservation (COMACO) is a pioneering social enterprise engaged in developing communities and managing environmental protection projects across Zambia’s Luangwa Valley. Formed to offer an alternative source of income for communities engaging in harmful practices like poaching or unsustainable agriculture, COMACO provides training, resources, and enhanced market access in a way that incentivizes forest and wildlife conservation, promotes household income and food security, and increases climate resilience for 250,000+ small-scale farmers. Promoting practices like agroforestry, regenerative agriculture and energy efficiency resulted in 883,000 tons of CO2 sequestered and 93 million trees planted in 2022 alone.
As a small and growing business (SGB) which addresses malnutrition in women and girls as a result of food shortages, COMACO provides women with seeds and organic gardening training. This means that, in addition to feeding their families, the women can sell surplus food and reinvest the profits into growing even larger crops. The program has been a success: the women and children of COMACO families are now half as likely to be underweight as their neighbors.
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