The new strategy, which aims to raise between US$300 million and US$400 million from a broad base of professional investors, will see AXA IM expand its suite of impact investment portfolios by launching a private market strategy focusing on opportunities that address the basic needs of emerging consumers across regions including Latin America, South and South East Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa.
Within healthcare this will include the physical delivery of care through improved access to drugs and vaccines, whereas financial inclusion prioritises making financial services accessible and available to a previously underserved beneficiary group.
This upcoming launch follows the successful first close of the AXA Impact Fund Climate and Biodiversity earlier this year, which has secured US$175 million in commitments as of today.
The dedicated impact investing team of AXA IM, led by head of impact investing Jonathan Dean, is responsible for around US$600 million of assets under management (AUM) as of the end of August 2019. The business is seeking to grow AUM via the new strategy, which will aim to provide a private markets solution catering for a wide investor base across insurance companies, institutions, family offices, wealth managers, and pension funds seeking to invest in impact-related initiatives.
The new strategy is expected to have its first close in the coming months. Investment involves risk, including the loss of capital.
“Our mission is to identify those companies who can empower underserved and low-income beneficiaries in emerging and frontier economies and meet the basic needs of the emerging consumer,” Mr Dean said.
“Building on the extensive experience we have developed through the structuring and deployment of the previous three strategies, our new portfolio construction will enable us to efficiently disburse capital across high-impact companies and projects that may deliver scalable, measurable and intentional impact outcomes, in healthcare and financial inclusion, to those who were previously underserved.”
