ADB Ventures Financing Partnership Facility

As Asia and the Pacific begins to rebuild and reset for post–COVID-19, new technologies can help sustain growth, distribute its benefits more inclusively, and make economies more resilient. However, market entry and scale-up costs for innovators are more acute in emerging Asia, where technologies and business models must be adapted market-by-market.

The ADB Ventures Financing Partnership Facility (ADB Ventures) can provide risk capital, and help unlock commercial risk capital, to catalyze impact technologies to enable a green and inclusive recovery in the region. It helps tech innovators by de-risking the process of validating and then commercializing their products and solutions in the challenging markets of Asia and the Pacific.

Forthcoming: ADB Ventures Investment Fund 2

Already with a $4 million contribution from the Clean Technology Fund, ADB Ventures Investment Fund 2 (Fund 2) will focus on clean technology and agriculture technology companies. It will aim to crowd in commercial risk capital for a diversified portfolio of technology companies that support a green and inclusive recovery for accelerated development in emerging Asia. ADB is currently seeking funding commitments of at least $100 million to establish and operationalize Fund 2 in 2022.

Established in January 2020, ADB Ventures is a nonsovereign platform that can accept and administer financial contributions to trust funds and technical assistance from multiple funding sources, including bilateral and multilateral organizations and the private sector. These contributions may be in the form of returnable capital and/or grants. ADB Ventures aspires to crowd in more than $1 billion of risk capital toward achieving the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. ADB recognizes that spurring innovators to expand into frontier markets requires a multipronged approach that addresses financing gaps across multiple stages of climate technology companies’ business life cycle.

The ADB Ventures Investment Fund 1 (Fund 1), established in 2020, is the first trust fund under the facility. With $59.7 million contributions, Fund 1 is making equity investments in solutions that address climate change and gender inequality. Fund 1 also includes the ADB Ventures technical assistance, with financing from the Asia-Pacific Climate Finance Fund ($1.4 million), Clean Technology Fund ($3 million), and Nordic Development Fund ($1.2 million). The technical assistance aims to catalyze venture risk capital for impact technology solutions. ADB Ventures' technical assistance implements two main activities:

• ADB Ventures SEED Program, that provides up to $200,000 catalytic funding at typically seed stage to validate and de-risk pilots and promote expansion into frontier markets that early-stage companies might otherwise not prioritize

• ADB Ventures Labs, a platform that leverages ADB’s operational networks, relationships, and strategic partnerships to match regional demand for technology solutions to best-in-class technology companies

To complement Fund 1, a proposed ADB Ventures Investment Fund 2 will provide debt financing to early-stage technology companies. ADB aims to operationalize Fund 2 in 2022 with minimum contributions of $100 million. Fund 2 had received committed contributions of $4 million by the end of 2020.

For more information, visit the ADB Ventures website.