Impact
We are proud of the social impact achieved with our SMEs
Our impact
Since our first investments, we have focused on creating a positive measurable social and environmental impact, as well as delivering attractive returns for our investors.
We create social impact through SMEs since they connect large groups of farmers to the market and employ large numbers of staff.
Truvalu’s primary impact goal is to sustainably improve the living standards of smallholder farmers.
To create and measure social impact we use the list of key metrics developed according to IRIS+ System to measure and monitor impact performance of the investees. Investees have to comply with additional reporting requirements for impact measurement.
Given the importance of impact data for our company, we are constantly further deepening our impact thesis and framework.
Discover how we managed to serve this dual impact-profit objective in our 2021 Impact Report, describing the impact on a subsection of 14 investees. Our social impact report 2023 can be downloaded here.
We invest with impact, ultimately contributing to the following Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs):
SDG 5 Gender
Equality
Truvalu contributes to gender equality and women empowerment by investing with a gender lens. Truvalu strives for a portfolio of companies that are gender focused by promoting gender equity in the workplace and their value chains. A good number of Truvalu’s investee companies are either women-owned, co-owned or women-led.
SDG 8 Decent Work and Economic Growth
Truvalu contributes to this goal by investing in scalable SMEs with a specific focus on: creating sustainable employment for both qualified and unqualified workers; increasing knowledge and skills in the workforce and; promoting market-based solutions that further improve the sector’s productivity and added value.
SDG 12 Responsible Production and Consumption
Truvalu invests in SMEs that purchase their raw materials from a large network of producers / smallholder farmers. We strive for a fair distribution of power, profit and value creation.
SDG 13 Combat climate change and its impacts
Climate change is increasingly making its impact felt worldwide. Everyone is suffering, but the poor in the developing world are bearing the brunt of the impacts. We are committed to provide green finance, technologies and capacity building, work on regenerative agriculture, and contribute to the reduction of emissions to deal with climate change.
SDG 17 Global Partnership
Truvalu realizes that investing in agri-SMEs in emerging economies requires the collective synergies of various organizations in the ecosystem and thus works with public and private partners (NGOs / DFIs / Accelerators / Incubators /FIs / governments) who share Truvalu’s vision and values to support investees, build a support ecosystem for impact entrepreneurs, and offer blended financing.
Our impact in 2023
Employment impact:
Smallholder farmers impact:
"My personal drive in life has always been creating equal opportunities for all. This explains why gender equality, diversity and inclusion are very close to my heart. Gender equality is a human right and investing in it just a very smart thing to do! Despite the compelling evidence of the business case, the global gender imbalance is still very critical. So putting this topic also on our agenda as Truvalu is key. This means using capital to generate financial returns and at the same time advance gender equity. Gender Lens Investing is a journey, especially if we want to use investments as a tool to shift market behaviour and get capital to the funds and firms, that are demonstrating and benefitting from gender equity, that see the strength of women as a market force and the risk of NOT paying attention to gender patterns.As impact investors we might need to take some more risks and step out of our comfort zones. Truvalu is ready to not only walk the talk. We strongly believe that together with others in the ecosystem, we can achieve good results and learnings, go faster and with much more impact. So we are very open to discuss opportunities with partners that share this vision to contribute to more gender equality in the economies we operate!"
Machteld Ooijens
Truvalu's director programs and partnerships