Anglo American Foundation’s support has helped turn Aséli from a new financing concept into a permanent capital vehicle already investing in South Africa’s green economy.
The Anglo American Foundation (AAF) has provided the catalytic seed funding behind Aséli Impact Capital, backing a new approach to financing South African green businesses and giving the vehicle the foundation from which to grow.
The funding is significant not only because of the capital committed, but because of what it has been used to build. Rather than supporting a once-off programme or a small group of businesses for a limited period, AAF has helped establish a permanent capital vehicle in which investment returns can be recycled into future companies. Successful investments therefore replenish the vehicle, allowing the original catalytic capital to continue supporting green businesses over time.
Aséli was co-designed by the Anglo American Foundation and Savant, with analytical support from Krutham, following an extensive process involving more than 30 stakeholders from across the philanthropic and investment sectors. The result is a patient, revenue-based financing model designed around the way growing green businesses actually operate, giving companies room to expand before repayment becomes the dominant pressure.
AAF’s involvement reflects its broader approach to philanthropy: using its ability to take early risk, test new models and address barriers that conventional markets have struggled to solve. As Michael Mapstone, CEO of the Anglo American Foundation, put it at Aséli’s launch:
“We have the freedom and the power to do what others cannot. Go in first. Be patient. Be flexible. Show that it is possible and make space for others to follow.”
That willingness to go first has already moved Aséli from design into investment. The vehicle made its first two investments earlier this year and is continuing to build a portfolio of businesses contributing to South Africa’s green economy. AAF’s initial seed commitment provides the base for an ambition to scale Aséli to a US$25 million vehicle with additional capital from aligned investors.
The long-term goals are deliberately substantial. By 2030, Aséli aims to deploy more than R450 million in catalytic capital, create 1,200 sustainable jobs and 4,000 indirect jobs, avoid 120,000 tonnes of carbon emissions and mobilise more than R1 billion in follow-on investment.
Those outcomes will ultimately be delivered by the businesses receiving investment, but AAF’s role has been to make the financing platform possible. Its support has funded not just companies, but the legal, financial and governance infrastructure needed to keep capital circulating within South Africa’s green economy.
Mapstone described the wider ambition clearly:
“The big impact is actually to prove a point to the markets that you can do something different, and you can diversify the way you fund SMEs into the future.”