QuonaCapital
Quona Capital is a venture capital firm investing in innovative fintech companies across emerging markets.
Quona Capital is a venture capital firm investing in innovative fintech companies across emerging markets.
Key details
Key metrics
Globally, c. 1.4 billion adults are unbanked and have no access to formal financial services. While the majority of unbanked individuals reside in Emerging Markets, Africa (45% of population) and Asia (32% of population) have particularly high shares of unbanked individuals.[1]
The unbanked are unable to take advantage of basic economic tools such as savings, credit, money transfers or insurance. This leaves them vulnerable to shocks such as job loss or unsuccessful harvests. Access to financial services enables them to protect their families, hedge against risks, and invest in their future. Quona focuses on regions with relatively high levels of informal and vulnerable employment.
Quona Accion Inclusion Fund III (“Quona III”) is a venture capital fund managed by Quona Capital Management (“Quona”) focused on investing in companies employing innovative technology-enabled business models to increase financial inclusion in emerging markets.
Quona believes that fintech solutions, as an affordable and scalable form of financial services, have the power to support economic growth and enhance the wellbeing of underserved individuals. Since 2015, Quona has invested in over 70 companies across 15 countries. It focuses on supporting small businesses and individuals, and operates in Latin America, India and Southeast Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Quona III investees include Hijra, a P2P lender targeting underserved rural MSMEs in Indonesia, and Onsurity, an insurtech platform focused on providing health insurance to underserved MSMEs and their employees in India.
Quona differentiates itself from its peers in three main areas:
- “Global/local” approach: local teams around the world (USA, India, South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Dubai, Brazil, Mexico and Indonesia) provide on-the-ground knowledge and presence, while global, sector-expert knowledge and best practices are shared across the
- Impact: Quona is a genuine impact investor, upholding high standards and meeting best practice requirements, including becoming a signatory to The Impact Principles and fully integrating impact measurement – aligned with leading frameworks and standards such as IMP, IRIS+ and the SDGs – into its investment
- Feedback loop: Quona invests resources in educating portfolio companies in maximizing their positive impact. This provides insights they then use for product development – particularly around financial services products – as well as client engagement, strategy development and impact measurement.
Quona sees clear alignment with BlueEarth in the level of commercial and impact excellence at which both organizations operate and values the mutual trust and respect between the two organizations.
BlueEarth is working with Quona to share best practices on impact measurement and management. BlueEarth’s approach to impact measurement is a key differentiator. We leverage dedicated impact expertise, fully incorporated within investment teams. BlueEarth has developed a leading impact measurement and management framework aligned with impact and ESG industry frameworks, including the Operating Principles for Impact Management, the Impact Management Project, IRIS+, the UN-backed Principles for Responsible Investment, and the UN Sustainable Development Goals, from which it can share valuable insights with the management team at Quona.
BlueEarth works closely with Quona’s management team to ensure that governance best practices are maintained.