Wisconsin-based Working Capital for Community Needs, a nonprofit impact investor, has invested in Amazonia Impact Ventures to support access to capital for Indigenous and forest-based entrepreneurs in the Amazon.
WCCN is Amazonia’s seventh investor since the firm launched its debut fund last year. Amazonia is looking to raise $25 million.
WCCN and Amazonia declined to share the size of WCCN’s investment.
The deal signals an evolution of 40-year-old WCCN’s investment strategy. Since launching in 1984, the nonprofit has provided more $170 million to underserved communities and business owners by investing in microfinance institutions. Amazonia is among WCCN’s first impact fund investments.
“One of our main theses is addressing persistent social and economic inequalities throughout Latin America,” WCCN’s Fiorella Díaz told ImpactAlpha. The organization was attracted to Amazonia’s approach to tackling poverty, gender disparities, and the marginalization of rural and Indigenous communities.
“Their impact perfectly aligns with ours,” she said. “That’s why this partnership with Amazonia Impact Ventures feels so natural.”
Friendly finance
Take Amazonia portfolio company Café Orígenes, for example. The cooperative of smallholder coffee farmers in Peru recently received a loan from Amazonia to support its growth ambitions after failing to secure funding from traditional lenders.
“The bottleneck for us was financing,” said Café Orígenes’ Luke Agness, who manages the cooperative. I was looking for $50,000 and was desperate for cash. We weren’t at the scale where [traditional] lenders could make a loan as small as we needed.”
Those that could were charging “predatory” interest rates, he added.
Amazonia took a different view of Café Orígenes than traditional banks, which look almost exclusively at a businesses’ financials and sector risk.
“Amazonia said, ‘Okay, keep doing the environmental work, and we’ll give you a competitive loan’,” Agness said. “Having a friendly financing partner like that is rare.”
Technical assistance
Amazonia has originated more than 40 loans. It works closely with portfolio companies to strengthen their business management and capacity, which in turn helps de-risk its portfolio for investors.
The firm worked with Café Orígenes, for example, on its financial modeling and impact narrative.
“We provide very specific, specialized technical advice,” said Aldo Soto, Amazonia’s co-founder. “We build the cash flows with them in simplified formats, organize the financials, and provide feedback.”
This hands-on, collaborative approach is what WCCN looks for in its financial partners.
“They are working with Indigenous populations and developing community-rooted, locally led, sustainable organizations,” said Díaz. “That’s the kind of impact we are looking for—giving communities the tools to thrive in their own spaces.”
Community climate adaptation
In addition to Amazonia, WCCN has made one other fund investment, backing Quito-based Impaqto Capital, which provides revenue-based financing for Andean enterprises, and one direct investment in a social enterprise: Albedo Solar, which provides home solar products and systems in Guatemala.
The three organizations reflect WCCN’s growing investment focus on climate adaptation and resilience.
“The communities we support are often excluded from the traditional financial system. But if they can’t adapt to climate change, they won’t be able to escape poverty.” Díaz said. “These investments are part of the same mission we’ve been pursuing for more than 40 years.”
