BlueOrchard Impact Investment Managers, a unit of UK-based Schroders Group, recently placed USD 6 million in equity from its InsuResilience Investment Fund II into FinAGG Technologies, a provider of cash flow financing and insurance to micro-, small and medium enterprises in India. Tata Capital, SIDBI (Small Industries Development Bank of India), and Prime Venture Partners invested additional funds totaling USD 5 million in the Series A round.

FinAGG CEO Nipun Kohli said, “We are excited to… further drive the penetration of climate insurance to our clients.” Mahesh Joshi, BlueOrchard’s Head of Private Equity Investments in Asia, described the overall aim as to “improve access to financial services, drive growth and improve the resilience of the vulnerable MSME sector in India.”

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) reportedly has issued a license to Alert Microfinance Bank enabling it to operate across the state of Lagos. The microbank was founded in 2013 as Boig Microfinance Bank, with a “unit” license allowing it to operate up to five branches. Alert serves individuals as well as micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) with a mobile app, savings services and various loan products. Several of these products are designed specifically for purposes such as serving youth, helping parents pay school fees and enabling companies to acquire fixed assets. Alert’s diaspora product offers Nigerians loans up to the equivalent of USD 280 if someone who sends them money from abroad places a refundable deposit via Alert’s app. The borrower pays monthly interest of 3.5%, and the guarantor receives a bonus of 5% on the deposit when the loan is repaid. Alert reports serving 24,000 customers with total assets of USD 6.7 million.

The UK government’s British International Investment (BII) recently committed to issuing a senior loan equivalent to USD 15 million to benefit the Ivorian unit of Compagnie Financière Africaine (COFINA), a group that provides financing and incubation services to micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in seven countries in Central and West Africa. COFINA has agreed to channel at least 30% of the proceeds to woman-owned MSMEs. The lender has served 175,000 people of whom 45% are women.

The UK-based multilateral EBRD recently announced it plans to decide by February whether to loan an additional USD 30 million to Bank of Palestine to on-lend to micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises in the West Bank. Consideration of the loan is an explicit response to the "acute economic crisis" caused by the war between Israel and Hamas. Bank of Palestine has total assets of USD 6.6 billion and serves 1 million people via 73 branches.