International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private-sector lending arm of World Bank, is investing up to $1 million in global business accelerator Capria Ventures, it said in a disclosure.
Capria was started by Unitus Seed Fund’s co-founders Will Poole and Dave Richards in September 2012.
In February this year, Bill Gates Investments, Crystal Springs Foundation, Lemelson Foundation, Mohandas Pai and Ranjan Pai of Aarin Capital committed to investing in Capria.
Capria Accelerator Fund is targeting commitments worth $5 million to invest in early-stage local fund managers in Sub-Saharan Africa, South/South-East Asia and Latin America.
It will identify local fund management talent, providing training and connections through its acceleration programme, investing in their management companies, helping them build their portfolio and raising funds from investors.
In an earlier interaction with VCCircle, Nikunj Jinsi, IFC's global head of venture capital, had said that IFC is also looking to invest selectively into accelerators to develop a robust ecosystem for entrepreneurs.
It was reported that IFC aims to double the size of its global venture capital portfolio within three years as it steps up the pace of investments.
IFC's venture capital arm invested mostly in the clean-tech sector between 2009 and 2013, and thereafter expanded its mandate to include consumer internet, healthcare and edu-tech segments. Consumer internet and clean-tech comprise a significant portion of its portfolio, which has only three healthcare and edu-tech companies each.
Its portfolio in India include eyewear e-tailer Lenskart Solutions Pvt. Ltd and Health Vista India Pvt Ltd, which runs home healthcare company Portea Medical.
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