Impact investor Acumen has raised an additional $90m in committed capital for its African agriculture fund, as the vehicle prepares to expand beyond East and West Africa into North Africa and deepen its bet that building farmer resilience to climate shocks can generate commercial returns.

The Acumen Resilient Agriculture Fund, which launched in 2020 as the world’s first equity fund explicitly designed to bolster smallholder farmers’ climate resilience, has already backed 12 fast-growing food and agribusiness companies. Acumen said the portfolio had directly reached more than 3m smallholder farmers, with more than 80 per cent reporting higher incomes and yields.

ARAF aims to deliver direct impact to at least an additional 4m farmers with the fresh capital, managed by Acumen Capital Partners, a wholly owned subsidiary.

Returning anchor investors the Green Climate Fund, Dutch development bank FMO and France’s Proparco were joined in the new commitment by Swedfund, the Belgian Investment Company for Developing Countries (BIO) and the FASA fund, alongside a family office.

“Climate change is a fact of life, and climate resilience for farmers is the difference between a good season and the risk of losing everything,” said Tamer El-Raghy, managing director of ARAF. “This newly committed capital allows us to continue supporting climate resilience for farmers, while seeking to provide financial returns for our investors as we expand beyond East and West Africa into North Africa, where millions of farmers are affected by climate change.”

Smallholder farmers produce nearly 80 per cent of Africa’s food, but climate shocks — drought, floods and erratic rainfall — routinely threaten their livelihoods and regional food supplies. Limited access to finance, inputs and agronomy support compounds the vulnerability.

The fund uses a blended capital structure, with concessional funds designed to absorb early losses and crowd in private money for investments long considered too risky for purely commercial capital.

“ARAF proved that resilience is investable, not theoretical,” said Carsten Stendevad, Acumen’s president and chief investment officer. “We’re bringing more blended capital and more partners to the table to help smallholder farmers across Africa adapt to a changing climate.”

Catherin Koffman, GCF’s Africa director, said the fund’s ongoing partnership with Acumen illustrated how blended finance could mobilise private capital for climate-resilient agriculture. “GCF is increasing its commitment to expand the fund’s geographic reach and scale up climate-resilient investments for farmers, who are among the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change,” she said.

GCF has committed more than $20bn across 134 developing countries under the UN climate convention and the Paris Agreement. Acumen, founded in 2001 by Jacqueline Novogratz, deploys patient capital in underserved markets and says it has improved more than 500 million lives.