Through April 2024, the US-based cooperative Equal Exchange is offering notes that promise an annual return of 3% through 2027. Retail investors can purchase the notes on Crowdfund Mainstreet, a website owned by the US-based public benefit corporation MiTec. Equal Exchange, which is seeking to raise USD 1.5 million through the offering, sells coffee, chocolate, bananas and other food products on a wholesale basis. It sources these products from small-scale farmers in Latin America and Africa, whom it supports with services such as pre-harvest financing.

Blue Earth Capital, a Switzerland-based firm owned by the Blue Earth Foundation, recently paid an undisclosed sum to acquire portions of the stakes that British International Investment holds in three funds: Aavishkaar Goodwell India Microfinance Development Company II, Novastar Ventures Africa Fund II and the Africa-focused Adenia Capital Fund IV. BII describes the transactions as the government-backed institution’s “first portfolio secondary transaction… structured as a pilot to support the development of a more robust secondaries private equity market [in] emerging markets.”