Quona Capital achieves final close of $203m for financial inclusion fund

US based investment fund Quona Capital has raised $203-million for its Accion Quona Inclusion Fund, to invest in tech startups that focus on financial inclusion in emerging markets.

The fund is a partnership with non-profit organisation Accion, which is the fund’s sponsor, general partner and anchor investor. Quona Capital was spun out of Accion in 2015.

In a press release last Wednesday (4 March) the investor said commitments had come from an array of leading investors including among others global asset managers and insurance companies, banks, university endowments, foundations, family offices, and development finance institutions, significantly exceeding its $150-million target.

Quona focuses on scale-up stage financial technology companies that are expanding access to financial services for underserved consumers and small businesses in Latin America, Africa, India and Southeast Asia.

Quona Capital has raised $203m for the Accion Quona Inclusion Fund

The Accion Frontier Inclusion Fund– the first fund managed by Quona and sponsored by Accion — pursued the same strategy. That fund achieved a close of $141-million.

That fund has had two exits to date — the sale of Coins.ph, a payments company in the Philippines to Indonesia’s Go-Jek, and the IPO of IndiaMart, a B2B e-commerce firm in India.

In Africa the fund has invested in SA’s Yoco, Lulalend, AllLife and Zoona and Kenya’s Sokowatch (see the below image for where the various portfolio companies are situated).

Read more: Kenyan ecommerce startup Sokowatch raises $14m
Read more: SA fintech LulaLend raises $6.5m from the IFC, Quona Capital
Read more: SA fintech Yoco raises whopping $16m in Series-B round led by Partech

Featured image: PublicDomainPictures via Pixabay