Sustainable investment firm responsibility announced today that it has raised $274 million in the first closings of two of its sustainable food-focused investment funds, aimed at transforming global agriculture and food value chains.

The strategies include the Sustainable Food in Asia strategy, the firm’s second private equity growth strategy in Asia, which achieved $173 million at the first close, and the Sustainable Food in Latam strategy, which reached $101 million.

Sustainable Food in Asia aims to invest in mid and downstream companies propelling efficiency in food production and distribution across South Asia and Southeast Asia, in countries including India, Indonesia, Vietnam, and the Philippines. responsAbility said that the strategy aims to tap the 1.2 billion mostly young, urbanized consumers expected to join the upper middle class income category, with Asia poised to more than double its total spending on food to over $8 trillion by 2030.

Stephanie Bilo, Chief Client & Investment Solutions Officer at responsAbility said:

“This successful start to the fundraise comes on the back of the track record of our first fund, which is showing a strong performance as well as delivering high impact, changing the lives of millions of small holder farmers across Asia, and implementing sustainable agricultural practices on hundreds of thousands of hectares of land.”

Sustainable Food in Latam is the firm’s first mezzanine financing strategy in Latin America, aimed ad investing in producers and exporters of mainly fruits and vegetables in countries including Mexico, Peru, Colombia, and Chile. According to Rik Vyverman, Head of Sustainable Food Private Equity of responsibility, the strategy invests only in companies that contribute positively to overcoming sustainable food supply and resource efficiency challenges.

Vyverman added:

“We have opted for a structured debt approach (mezzanine finance) given that many of the investment opportunities are family owned and managed businesses and exits are not always obvious. We are aligning ourselves with the entrepreneurs in terms of the growth we are financing and as such are endeavouring to generate attractive risk adjusted returns and provide a recurrent income for our investors at the same time.”

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