WaterCredit Investment Fund I, III,

WaterEquity Global Access Fund

Date: 2015, 2017, 2020

Asset Class: Private Debt

Description:  WaterEquity is Water.org’s sister non-profit. Together they are working to catalyze change to the financial sector to make affordable loans available for safe water and sanitation. WaterEquity’s funds invest in a portfolio of financial institutions and enterprises in emerging markets—enabling them to scale, meet increasing market demand, and deliver access to safe water and sanitation.

Why We Invest: WaterEquity’s first fund (WCIF I) of $10M was critical to demonstrate that they could use private funds to help microfinance institutions scale water and sanitation lending to attract commercial capital to the sector. WaterEquity’s second fund (WCIF III) of $50M was critical to demonstrate that they could continue to scale operations and in so doing were able to provide better target returns to investors (from target of 1-2% in first fund to 6+% in the second fund). In April 2021, WaterEquity closed its third fund (the Global Access Fund) targeted at $150M and 10-11% returns again improving returns and impact with scale and learnings. As of November 2022, Water.org/WaterEquity had mobilized over $4B to the sector. Access to safe water and sanitation is a human right that is fundamental to life, health, gender equity, education and poverty alleviation as well as providing resilience against the pandemic and mitigating climate change effects.