ImpactAlpha LP/GP: Japanese investors lean into African opportunities

Greetings, Agents of Impact! 

Welcome to this week’s ImpactAlpha LP/GP, where we take you inside the real business of impact investing and the dynamic relationships between owners, managers and intermediaries of impact capital.

In this week’s newsletter:

• Japanese investors lean into African opportunities 
• LP scan: Japanese LPs investing in emerging markets
• Bluefront Equity raises $100 million for sustainable seafood

Featured: Impact in Asia and Africa

Japanese investors dial up impact deal-making in Africa. Japan is emerging as an ambitious player in Africa’s economic future. The famously insular country is bringing with it billions in capital and an appetite for impact. At last week’s Tokyo International Conference on African Development, the Japan International Cooperation Agency, or JICA, Japan’s development finance institution, pledged to invest $5.5 billion for Africa’s renewable energy, healthcare and private sectors, along with another $1.5 billion in catalytic impact investments. Through the Impact Investing for Development of Emerging Africa initiative, JICA made a $40 million commitment to India-based Aavishkaar Group’s Global Supply Chain Support Fund, which invests in the Indian Ocean region, including East Africa. Japan’s private investors are also moving in. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Japan’s largest bank, is building a book of sustainable sovereign debt swaps after helping Côte d’Ivoire refinance €400 million ($436 million) in debt last year. The deal will free up at least €60 million for Côte d’Ivoire to invest in education and other development initiatives. Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp., Japan’s second largest bank, last week announced an investment in impact fund manager Novastar Ventures’ third fund. More than 60 Japanese investors are active in Africa’s venture capital scene, according to a recent report from British International Investment.

• Co-creating industry. Japanese corporations and venture capital are leading the push to partner with African startups for mutual tech and industry development. Uncovered Fund and Monex Ventures this month launched a three billion-yen ($20 million) fund for African startups working in mobile payments and micro-lending, retail digitization, last-mile delivery and climate tech. Kepple Africa Ventures and Verod Capital Management last year closed a $60 million early-stage Africa VC fund, securing backing from JICA, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank, Toyota Tsusho Corporation, Tokyo-based investment firm SBI Holdings, and Japan’s ICT and Postal Services. Toyota Tsusho Corp. supports early-stage African fintech and mobility startups via its Mobility 54 investment fund. Tokyo-based Uneri Capital this year expanded its investment strategy to include Japanese founders working in emerging markets. Its first deal is a company using artificial intelligence and robotics for disease and pest mapping across Africa. “I believe we’ll see more concrete projects move forward” in Africa, Uneri’s Noriko Shibao tells ImpactAlpha. “The momentum is already evident.”
  
• Influence and growth. Driving Japan’s economic interest in the world’s fastest growing region, in part, is motivation to be a counter-weight to China’s influence. African countries have taken on more than $90 billion in debt from China in recent years. The Japanese government is ramping up its supply of low-cost, yen-demoninated bonds to support African infrastructure and private sector development. “Converting high cost debt into concessional debt is really important to stabilize the African continent,” JICA’s Naoki Ando told the Financial Times. Japan’s aging, shrinking population is dampening its prospects for growth at home, says Shibao. “Population decline limits domestic growth. There’s a clear motivation to look outward, especially to emerging markets where impactful opportunities exist.”
  
• Keep reading, “Japanese investors dial up impact deal-making in Africa,” by Lucy Ngige.

LP Scan: Japan Goes Global 

A half dozen Japanese LPs backing impact funds across Asia, Africa and Latin America. Amid a broader push into impact investing, Japanese institutions are funnelling capital into impact strategies in emerging markets in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Impact investing assets under management in Japan grew 50% last year to $117 billion, according to the GSG Impact Japan National Partner. ImpactAlpha has tracked a half-dozen leading Japanese limited partners over the past year making commitments to impact funds in emerging markets.

• The context. The Japanese government late last year said that the country’s $1.4 trillion Government Pension Investment Fund, GPIF, and other public asset owners would begin to consider non-financial factors such as impact. GPIF formalized the policy shift in March by revising its investment principles to incorporate impact investments. The move from GPIF goes further than Japan’s earlier push into sustainable investing, largely in public markets, led by Hiro Mizuno, GPIF’s chief investment officer from 2015 to 2020.
  
• Impact LPs. Last week, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. backed Novastar Ventures’ third Africa People and Planet Fund (see above). In March, Oji Holdings, the country’s largest paper producer, anchored New Forests’ Future Forests Innovation Fund with $300 million. Sumitomo Life Insurance, one of Japan’s largest life insurers, last year signed on to LeapFrog Investments’ fourth Emerging Consumer Fund, a private equity strategy for healthcare and financial inclusion in Africa and Asia.
  
• Global development. This week, JICA invested $40 million in Mumbai-based impact investor Aavishkaar (see above). JICA last year committed $1 billion to IDB Invest to launch the Trust Fund Achieving Development of Latin America and the Caribbean, a co-investment vehicle for private-sector projects across the region. JICA is also a limited partner in Dalus Capital’s third fund in Mexico, which backs early-stage impact and climate tech startups (watch ImpactAlpha’s interview with JICA’s Michiko Kogure).
  
• Keep reading, “A half dozen Japanese LPs backing impact funds across Asia, Africa and Latin America,” by Erik Stein.

Dealflow: Financing Fish

Bluefront Equity clinches its second sustainable seafood fund at $100 million. Norwegian seafood investor Bluefront Equity attracted capital from new as well as existing investors for its second fund. The European Investment Fund kicked in $35 million (€30 million). Novo Holdings, which manages assets for Novo Nordisk Foundation, and the UK’s Esmée Fairbairn Foundation joined as new investors. Lukas Walton’s Builders Vision backed the fund in February this year to help it reach a first close. Nordic institutional investors and family offices Klaveness Marine, TD Veen, Havfonn, the Steensland group, 3S Invest and Cubera are repeat investors. “The fact that the largest investors from our first fund choose to invest in the second fund too is a strong confirmation of the healthy development our first fund has seen,” said Bluefront’s Simen Landmark. Bluefront Equity invests in growing aquaculture businesses that improve ocean health and aquatic welfare. 

• Sustainable protein. Bluefront takes majority positions in companies that improve efficiency and provide key services such as sanitization and fish health monitoring. Its second fund has already backed three ventures. Cryogenetics preserves the genes of aquatic species to optimize breeding. Horizon Software provides biological and financial planning software for aquaculture farms. In April, Bluefront acquired the aquaculture business of Piscada, which provides software for the fish farming industry.
  
• Private equity interest. Investor interest in oceans and sustainable seafood is growing. Aquaculture can produce protein with significantly fewer emissions and environmental impact than an equivalent kilogram of poultry, pork or beef. Singapore’s 8F Asset Management raised $460 million earlier this year for its third aquaculture fund, as well as $209 million in debt from Japanese banks. The funding will help 8F set up a land-based salmon farm in Japan. France’s SWEN Capital Partners snagged €160 million ($183 million) for its second ocean fund.
  
• More. 

Dealflow overflow. Investment news crossing our desks:

• Candide Group, HCAP Partners and Turning Rock Partners are the final three investments in the New York City Economic Development Corporation’s Catalyst Fund. The $40 million fund has invested in a total of 11 impact fund managers supporting inclusivity in the city’s high-tech, high-growth economic sectors. (NYCEDC)
  
• Italian asset manager Sosteneo SGR raised €700 million ($820 million) for its first clean energy infrastructure fund. The raise includes €620 million to the fund and €80 million from investors for co-investments. Sosteneo’s owner, Generali Investments Holding, anchored while an unnamed European pension fund, foundation, bank, and several family offices and individuals also invested. (Renewables Now)
  
• TPG NEXT, TPG’s investment strategy for emerging fund managers, is anchoring Vanara Capital’s first fund. Denver and Tel Aviv-based Vanara makes “flexible” equity investments in growth-stage tech companies. (Vanara Capital)

Agents of Impact: Follow the Talent

Join ImpactAlpha at these upcoming partner events:

• Sept. 1-2: Latimpacto’s Impact Minds, Medellín.
• Sept. 18: VentureESG’s FRAME 2025, London.
• Oct. 3: Swiss Impact Investment Association’s Impact Summit, Lausanne.
• Oct. 7-9: GIIN Impact Forum, Berlin. ImpactAlpha subscribers are invited to use the code Berlin-IMPACTALPHA for 15% off (the code is good for first 50 signups). 
• Oct. 27-29: SOCAP25, San Francisco. 

Groundwork Collaborative welcomes Charisma Troiano, previously with the US Department of Energy, as chief of communications… Nina Aicardi, previously with Institutional Shareholders Services, joins T. Rowe Price as head of corporate governance of the Americas… Sierra Club Foundation adds Sara Murphy, previously with The Shareholder Commons, as director of Shifting Trillions, a campaign to move capital away from fossil fuels and into the sustainable economy. 

The Media Development Investment Fund promotes Diego Jaime as director of operations… CREO Syndicate is recruiting a director of development in New York… Also in New York, Rethink Capital Partners is on the hunt for a platform operations associate… Capshift is searching for a portfolio associate in Boston… Arnold Ventures is hiring a senior associate and a director for its mission-aligned investment portfolio. 

The Paul Ramsay Foundation is looking for an impact investing manager in Sydney… The Global Innovation Fund has an opening for a senior managing director of partnerships in London… Sagana is looking for an investment manager… 60 Decibels is taking applications from local, early-stage, women-led B2C startups that are interested in fully-funded impact measurement.

👉 View (or post) impact investing jobs on ImpactAlpha’s Career Hub.

Thank you for your impact!

– Aug. 26, 2025