The successful launch of the Dolma Impact Fund may very well prove to be a turning point for Nepal, one of Asia’s poorest countries. Dolma is the rst international private equity fund dedicated to Nepal, providing much needed growth capital for small and medium-sized businesses.
The fund’s founder, Tim Gocher, and his team raised over 20 million US dollars for its rst close in September 2014 and are expecting a nal close of 40 million US dollars. Its investors include FMO, the Dutch Development Bank, the Finnish Fund for Industrial Cooperation (FINNFUND) and OeEB, the Development
Bank of Austria, as well as private investors. If we can make this fund a success, we hope other international investors will follow and boost sustainable economic growth and job creation in Nepal’, Gocher says. Gocher is also an Honorary Professor of Sustainable Business at the University of Nottingham’s Malaysia campus and preaches what he practices in sustainable investing.
‘When I rst visited Nepal in 2003, I was your typical stressed-out investment banker trying to nd myself in the Himalayas. At some point, I got stranded in a remote village near the Tibetan border for a few days and I was struck by the kindness and hospitality of these people.
This community embodied many things that us in the West are trying to reinvent: no rat race, strong communal and family values, organic farming, meditation, etcetera. And although they were very poor, nobody ever asked me for anything. I visited the place many times after that, bringing friends and acquaintances, and launched the Dolma Foundation to help the poorest children from the region.
Now the foundation sponsors over 100 children for education and healthcare, and is building a disabled children’s home and other health facilities. I simply fell in love with the country and its people. It was through this charity work that I met my Nepalese wife, Pooja Gurung.’
Now you have taken it quite a step further with the launch of the multimillion dollar Dolma Impact Fund. Why a private equity fund?
‘Nepal is much poorer than its big neighbours – China and India – and has seen relatively slow economic growth since the end of the civil war in 2006. The disposable income of the rural population has grown in recent years, in part thanks to remittances sent home by family members working abroad. But this money is often spent on imported goods from India and thus the additional demand is failing to create the kind of economic impact needed to create broad-based employment opportunities.
The country has plenty of good companies with growth potential, but not the capital and skills required to help them grow to meet this demand. In many cases, regulatory and institutional hurdles, poor compliance and accounting standards, have given investors’ cold feet. I’m convinced that investing in companies on both social and environmental, and sound economic grounds will help set Nepal on a path to sustainable economic growth, which will bene t both the Nepalese and their investors.’
858.000
New jobs supported directly and indirectly
936.000
avoided GHG emissions (tCO2eq)
‘We decided to concentrate on small and medium-sized businesses with a proven track record and impressive growth potential. By a proven track record I mean that we’re not into seed money, since we considered it unwise to add the inherent risk of start-ups to the risk of investing in “unchartered territory”, which may be the view of other foreign investors. Neither are we into buy-outs or late stage private equity activity.
Media contacts
For more information, journalists are welcome to contact:
Paul Hartogsveld Senior Press Of cer
T: +31 70 314 99 28 M: +31 6 11 58 9127
E: p.hartogsveld@fmo.nl
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