INOKS Capital: Best Sustainable Impact Hedge Fund Manager Switzerland 2020

From its Geneva headquarters, INOKS Capital focuses on growth capital investment (short to long term) in emerging markets as an opportunity to generate value and make a difference. ESG and Impact are embedded in the investment approach and applied equally to all the funds managed. INOKS has implemented ethical and sustainable finance strategies to foster commodity value chains’ efficiency and sustainability. It has been a PRI (Principles for Responsible Investment) signatory since 2010, and in 2006 launched its first short-term Commodity Structured Trade Finance fund to support the SME sector adopting so called ethical bias: no negative externality (i.e. future ESG) and positive externalities (i.e. future Impact). INOKS launched a dedicated investment vehicle in 2015 to target the agricultural value chain in Caucasus & Central Asia for SIFEM. The following year, it tasked an internal committee with charting its long-standing sustainability objectives with market standards and bringing impact knowledge and expertise. The firm’s fund management seeks to promote sustainable global commodity value chains by increasing regional self-sufficiency (food security and gender equality), optimizing resource usage (environmental resected) and stabilizing prices (poverty alleviation). It provides companies more direct access to consumer markets, capital  and encourages compliant/transparent operations. ln 2018, it reached some 28’000 smallholder farmers and helped to divert agricultural waste for recycling. The INOKS team is a mix of genders and cultures, with 57 percent of women employees and 10 nationalities, and a majority from minorities. The CFI.co judging presents INOKS Capital with the 2020 award for Best Sustainable Impact Hedge Fund Manager (Switzerland).