Investing in emerging markets isn't easy. Investing in emerging markets when you want to make a positive social and environmental impact presents even more challenges. For instance, raising capital is more challenging because you have to overcome both the typical investor belief that positive impact will come at a cost to returns and the tendency to write off unfamiliar markets as far too risky.
Today's guest co-founded an asset management firm that has successfully navigated these challenges on its path to growing its asset base to over $300M USD. Serge LeVert-Chiasson is Managing Director of Impact & COO at Sarona Asset Management; an asset manager investing in private equity & private debt in frontier and emerging markets around the world.
What's especially interesting is that Sarona was born out of a relatively small, but highly respected charitable organization known as MEDA (Mennonite Economic Development Associates); which itself got its start in 1953 as a social enterprise when 7 North American Mennonite business people began running a dairy farm with Ukrainian Mennonite refugees in Paraguay who had escaped the 2nd world war.
During this episode of the podcast, Serge and I discuss Sarona's unique history and how that shapes its culture to this day; the way Sarona invests in and alongside financial intermediaries in emerging & frontier markets; its approach to impact measurement & management as a fund of funds, the role that faith plays in many communities across the globe, examples of the types of direct and indirect investments that Sarona makes, and Serge's involvement in CAFIID (Canada Forum for Impact Investment & Development). And be sure to stay tuned to the very end when Serge shares his thoughts for what is necessary for unlocking more impact investment dollars into emerging and frontier markets.
Resources:
29 - The causes of wealth inequality that no one is talking about
28 - A technology solution for solving the riddle of impact measurement and management
27 - Building better private equity structures and practices for a more equitable world
26 - Behind the scenes with an impact fund startup investing in African SMEs
25 - Leveraging employee ownership to fight wealth inequality
24 - The Purpose of Capital with Jed Emerson
23 - Breaking the shareholder primacy paradigm with alterantive ownership models
22 - Empowering indigenous innovators & communities
21 - Harnessing the vast untapped potential of newcomers to Canada
20 - How the Equality Fund is using Impact Investing to Fuel Feminist Futures
19 - Fighting a $200 Billion per year predatory industry using microfinance
18 - How Blended Finance is being used to massively scale the amount of capital for impact investments
17 - Around the world of impact investing with Rehana Nathoo
16 - Reinventing Commercial Banking for Good
15 - The best social return on investment? The case for delivering micro nutrients during the first 1,000 days of life
14 - Pioneering high-impact investments that create opportunity for the world's most vulnerable people
13 - Revitalizing the Indigenous economy by investing in Indigenous entrepreneurs
12 - Serving high net worth individuals, foundations, and institutions
11 - How to profit off the transition to a low carbon economy
10 - Challenging traditional philanthropy
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