Capria Ventures and its affiliated network of funds have invested $92.1m in early-stage startups spread across 56 countries as of December 2020, according to its annual impact report.

There was a 361% jump from the $20m as of December 2019.

The portfolio of 86 companies in Capria Network has collectively generated $469m in revenues as of December 31, 2020, clocking 212% growth year over 2019.

Will Poole, Managing Partner and Co-founder, Capria Ventures, said: “Capria is delivering market-rate returns while also creating impact through its investments in the Global South, specifically, in the tech hubs of Latin America, Africa, India, and SE Asia.” 

“After a year like 2020, our work has never been more important. While the planet was going through an existential crisis, Capria’s global network of fund managers continued their investing programs, supporting startups that were instrumental in delivering digital education to families in lockdown, operating logistics networks for goods delivery, offering remote diagnostics for COVID-19, and many other essential services,” he said.

“In addition to continuing to deploy capital to startups, we were pleased to see our aggregate impact climb to more than 16 million individuals. With most of our investments going into early-stage startups, we’re just getting going,” he added.

According to the report, in SSA and MENA, the fund managers invested $2.5m in 21 companies across five countries in 2020, increasing cumulative capital deployed by 57%  over 2019. 

The Covid pandemic is estimated to have pushed an additional 88 million, that is 115 million people globally - into extreme poverty through 2020, with the total rising to as many as 150 million by the end of 2021, as per an October 2020 study by the World Bank. 

In such a year, Capria Network funds, through their portfolio companies, created 6.3K active jobs and impacted the lives of 16.5 million people, of which almost 20% are women.

Apart from ensuring its network of funds invest in companies that create an impact, Capria places great emphasis on ensuring every company is aligned with global best Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) standards. 

Capria  announced that 94% of network funds have institutionalized anti-corruption policies and every fund we invest inputs in place processes to screen companies based on ESG risks and IFC’s exclusion list.