Background

The economic and financial losses caused by natural disasters have increased substantially over the last decades. It is expected that the frequency and severity of weather related events will further increase due to climate change. Developing and emerging countries are and will be particularly affected by these developments. Their capacities to cope with the effects of natural disasters and extreme weather events are limited. Traditional risk-sharing mechanisms and social safety nets fail by reason of the scale and effect of such catastrophic events. Access to insurance is limited in developing economies although insurance could effectively complement existing risk management strategies and reduce the vulnerability of countries and their population towards natural catastrophes. Insurance schemes reduce the dependence on public emergency assistance and compensate the affected in a direct way. Insurance pay-outs reach people much faster than emergency relief operations and more importantly, insurance can incentivize people to implement effective adaptation measures by leading to a reduction of the payable insurance premium.

The first InsuResilience Investment Fund commenced its business activities in January 2015. Building on the success of the first fund, the InsuResilience Investment Fund Private Equity II was incorporated in September 2022.

Initiator

The InsuResilience Investment Fund has been set up by KfW Development Bank on behalf of the Federal Republic of Germany, represented by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).

KfW gives impetus to economic, social and ecological development worldwide. As a promotional bank under the ownership of the Federal Republic and the Länder (federal states), it offers support to encourage sustainable improvement in economic, social, ecological living and business conditions, among others in the areas of small and medium-sized enterprises, entrepreneurialship, environmental protection, housing, infrastructure, education finance, project and export finance, and development cooperation.

For more details, please visit www.kfw.de

Main Characteristics and Objectives

The overall objective of the strategies is to contribute to the adaptation to climate change by improving access to and the use of insurance in developing countries. The specific objective of the funds is to reduce the vulnerability of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) as well as low-income households to extreme weather events.

The funds also provide technical assistance e.g. for product design and development and – temporarily and to a very limited extent only – subsidies to reduce the premium payments for the end-clients.

The first strategy has two sub-funds:

    • Debt Sub-Fund: lends to financial institutions and aggregators in return for participation in the development and distribution of climate insurance.
    • Equity Sub-Fund: invests in insures and brokers actively building the market for climate insurance.

The second strategy has a strong focus on technology to drive affordability of and accessibility to climate insurance and only provides equity financing. 

Target Countries and Target Group

Target countries of the funds are ODA recipient countries as defined by the OECD Development Assistance Committee provided that they have an appropriate investment environment.

Target group of the InsuResilience Investment Funds are existing or new insurance or reinsurance companies that already provide or introduce insurance solutions that help clients mitigate climate related risks (e.g. insurance schemes for the clients of microfinance institutions, insurance schemes for agricultural companies, insurance schemes for countries or regions).

Fund Manager

BlueOrchard is a leading global impact investment manager and member of the Schroders Group. As a pioneering impact investor, the firm is dedicated to generating lasting positive impact for communities and the environment, while aiming at providing attractive returns to investors.

BlueOrchard was founded in 2001, by initiative of the UN, as the first commercial manager of microfinance debt investments worldwide. Today, the firm offers impact investment solutions across asset classes, connecting millions of entrepreneurs in emerging and frontier markets with investors with the aim to make impact investment solutions accessible to all and to advance the conscious use of capital. Being a professional investment manager and expert in innovative blended finance mandates, BlueOrchard has a sophisticated international investor base and is a trusted partner of leading global development finance institutions. To date, BlueOrchard has invested over USD 9.8bn across more than 105 countries. Over 255 million poor and vulnerable people in emerging and frontier markets received access to financial and related services with the support of BlueOrchard as of June 2022.

For additional information, please visit: www.blueorchard.com.

Technical Assistance

Technical assistance manager of the first InsuResilience Investment Fund is CelsiusPro, a leading Swiss-based weather and climate change insurance specialist. Founded in 2008, the company possesses ample international experience in structuring and originating tailored index products, mitigating the effects of adverse weather, climate change and natural perils. CelsiusPro operates a state-of-the-art online platform for risk modeling, pricing, execution, transaction lifecycle management and reporting that allows users to model, price and transact a large number of transactions efficiently and at low cost. For additional information, please visit: www.celsiuspro.com

Technical assistance manager of the InsuResilience Investment Fund Private Equity II is BlueOrchard Finance Ltd.