iungo capital started in 2016 with the aim of tackling the missing middle finance gap – < USD 50-500k investment tickets in a 1st round – with a financially sustainable model. Most impact investors believe investing less than USD 500k per deal is commercially unviable, due to a perception of higher risk and costs, and thus lower returns; while alternatively, local banks’ collateral requirements are often too restrictive. This leaves the biggest SME market, with the highest job creation potential, untapped, with businesses that have small investment needs and little collateral. The challenge for us was to find a way to reduce costs and risks while making a lot of smaller investments than conventionally given. As a solution, we came up with the following elements:

1. starting as an evergreen; provided us with the opportunity to make investments with the first capital raised and build our case towards other investors after, instead of having to wait for a first close to initiate building track record. Our evergreen model also facilitated recycling capital beyond what a closed end fund would allow; finally, doing more with less would help us to increase our fund’s IRR.
2. staying away from equity investments – there’s not only a lack of exit opportunities, but our target segment shies away from giving up ownership: the companies are their bread and butter, with the desire to pass them on to their children. mezzanine debt – self-liquidating, cash flow based, partially collateralized loans, with both fixed and revenue share based repayments – would prove to be a welcomed and easy to explain alternative.
3. inviting deal by deal local business angels to co-invest 5-10% of the ticket; intrinsically committed to sharing their knowledge, experience, networks, and resources until exit, while co-assuring follow through on adequate payment behavior of investees; thus partially reducing technical assistance costs and risks. In an SME world that is built on risk, having mentors means the potential for success will grow as entrepreneurs who implement advice tend to have fewer missteps in building their business.
4. counting on an in-house technical assistance model, not only post-investment, but already pre-investment, making the companies ready for due diligence and investment: often, family and company expenses are mixed up, accounting and financial systems need to be sorted/updated, the investment plan has to be rebuilt, a clear operational plan developed in line with the expected growth post-investment, and ESG targets – including around gender equality and inclusion – need to be defined.

are you enthusiastic about our approach and objectives? Are you self-driven and thrive in a pragmatic result-oriented and flexible environment? Even when we don’t have active vacancies, we are always interested in hearing from you

investment manager Uganda
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portfolio accountant Uganda
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