AXA IM to launch fourth impact investing strategy focusing on emerging and frontier consumers

• AXA IM is to launch fourth private market impact investing strategy later this year.
• The latest offering will focus on addressing the basic needs of the emerging consumer through healthcare and financial inclusion.
• The new strategy is expected to launch in the coming months and is aiming to raise between $300-$400m from a broad base of professional investors.

AXA Investment Managers (AXA IM) is to expand its suite of impact investment portfolios by launching a private market strategy focusing on opportunities that address the basic needs of emerging consumers across regions including Latin America, South and South East Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa.

The new strategy, which is seeking to raise between $300-$400 million, will invest in private companies focusing on creating intentional impact outcomes across scalable impact themes such as access to healthcare and financial inclusion. Within healthcare this will include the physical delivery of care through improved access to drugs and vaccines, whereas financial inclusion prioritises making financial services accessible and available to a previously under-served beneficiary group.

The new portfolio construction has been designed to capitalise on the opportunities sourced and created over the past 7 years’ activity and deployment of our impact strategy which are highly aligned to the intended mission of the next strategy - addressing the basic needs of the emerging consumer. The networks and relationships established throughout this deployment facilitate access to direct transactions, co-investments, and partnerships.

This upcoming launch follows the successful 1st close of the AXA Impact Fund Climate and Biodiversity earlier this year, which has secured $175 million in commitments as of today.

The dedicated impact investing team of AXA IM, led by Head of Impact Investing Jonathan Dean, is responsible for around $600m of assets under management as of the end of August 2019. The business is seeking to grow AUM via the new strategy, which will aim to provide a private markets solution catering for a wide investor base across insurance companies, institutions, family offices, wealth managers, and pension funds seeking to invest in Impact related initiatives.

The new strategy is expected to have its first close in the coming months. Investment involves risk, including the loss of capital.

Jonathan Dean, Head of Impact Investing at AXA Investment Managers, said: “Our mission is to identify those companies who can empower underserved and low-income beneficiaries in emerging and frontier economies and meet the basic needs of the emerging consumer.”

“Building on the extensive experience we have developed through the structuring and deployment of the previous three strategies, our new portfolio construction will enable us to efficiently disburse capital across high impact companies and projects that can deliver scalable, measurable and intentional impact outcomes, in healthcare and financial inclusion, to those who were previously under-served.”