World’s First Wildlife Bond to Track Rhino Numbers in Africa

By Antony Sguazzin

Black rhino numbers have dropped to about 5,500

Photographer: Tony Karumba/AFP/Getty Images

A BOND DESIGNED TO raise funds to grow the population of endangered black rhinoceros in South Africa will be sold by the World Bank this year.

The five-year, 670 million rand ($45 million)

security will be the world’s first wildlife conservation bond and the aim is to sell it in the middle of the year. Returns for investors will be determined by the rate of growth of the populations of the animals in two South African reserves, according to the Rhino Impact Investment Project, an initiative started by the Zoological Society of London.

If successful, the program could be expanded to protect black rhino populations in Kenya as well as other wildlife species such as lions, tigers, gorillas and orangutans, Rhino Impact said in a document detailing the proposal. It provides an opportunity for people interested in conservation to get a return on their support and possibly reinvest money in new projects rather than the more traditional route where projects are funded by philanthropists or governments.

“The innovative wildlife conservation bond financing mechanism plans to use a World Bank,

International Bank for Reconstruction and

Development IBRD AAA-rated bond,” it said. Credit Suisse Group AG is advising on the project.

The World Bank will also sell a $100 million conservation bond at the same time, without specifying what it will be used for.

Under the terms of the rhino bond, investors will forgo an annual coupon and will instead receive their original capital and an additional payout depending on how much the rhino population has grown over five years. The principal of the bond and the possible payout at maturity will be paid by the Global Environment

Facility, which has received donations from more than 40 countries and was formed ahead of the Rio Earth Summit in 1992.

The plan to sell the securities was delayed from last year because of the impact of the coronavirus.

Of the 29,000 rhinos made up of five species globally, about 80% are in South Africa and almost all them are white rhino. Black rhino numbers have dropped to about 5,500 from 65,000 in 1970 and potentially as many as 850,000 once, according to the World Bank. The animals are found in four African countries, including South Africa, and can weigh as much as 1.4 tons -- much smaller than the white rhino. There are 2,046 black rhinos in South Africa currently, the World Bank said.

Growing Populations

Rhinos are under threat from poaching, mostly because of demand in Vietnam and China for the powder from their horns that’s believed to cure cancer and improve virility.

“When working on innovative structures like this one, we start small and hope to learn from the first one and then get successfully larger in an ambition to ultimately scale what works,” Marisa Drew, chief sustainability officer at Credit Suisse, said.

The two sites selected in South Africa are the Addo Elephant National Park and the Great Fish River Nature Reserve. Addo is a 1,640 square kilometer (633 square-mile) reserve in the Eastern Cape province while Great Fish is a 450 square-kilometer park in the same province. Both are state run.

“It couldn’t have come at a better time, we have to look after the rhino, its critically endangered,” Nick de Goede, park manager at Addo, said in an

interview. “The whole idea is to look at the rhino as a pilot and then it can be rolled out for any species.”

Critically Endangered

The aim is increase the population by 4% per annum, he said, declining to say how many rhinos are in Addo because that information could be used by poachers.

Three sites in Kenya -- Lewa Borana

Conservancy, Ol Pejeta Conservancy and the

Tsavo West National Park -- may be chosen next for a bond sale, Rhino Impact said.

While the rhino security is a first, so-called sustainable bonds have been used to finance a variety of outcomes from marine and fisheries projects in the Seychelles to girls education in rural India. www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-03-24/ world-s-fi rst-wildlife-bond-to-track-rhinopopulations-in-africa Image credit: datacenterdynamics.com, ResearchGate, fl ipboard.com

Egyptian VC Firm Sawari Ventures Finally Closes $71M Fund for North African Startups

By Tage Kene-Okafor

Sawari Ventures

EGYPTIAN-BASED VC FIRM Sawari Ventures

has closed its $71 million fund for North Africa’s rapidly growing startup ecosystem.

The firm first announced its fund in 2018, when it closed an initial $35 million (which subsequently increased to $41 million) in hopes to close at $70 million, per Menabytes. The investors in the first tranche included CDC (which forked over $12 million), European Investment Bank, Proparco and the Dutch Good Growth Fund.

Having closed an additional $30 million, Sawari Ventures’ total raise is $1 million more than its original target. And it has added a range of new backers that includes Banque Misr, Banque du Caire, Ekuity, Misr Insurance Group, National Bank of Egypt and Suez Canal Bank.

Ahmed El Alfi, Hany Al-Sonbaty and Wael Amin launched Sawari Ventures in 2010. Before venturing into the world of venture capital, El Alfi and Al-Sonbaty were investment professionals in the Egyptian tech space for more than two decades. Amin, meanwhile, was a founder of a tech company called ITWorx that made notable acquisitions in the Egyptian tech ecosystem.

In addition to Egypt, Sawari Ventures focuses on Morocco and Tunisia. For the firm, these three countries represent one of the best investment opportunities around, given the mismatch between the capital available (amounts and variation at every stage) and the market opportunity. They also share common traits such as language, culture, business, governance norms and market dynamics, making it easier for cross-border cooperation.

Since launching the firm more than 10 years ago, Sawari claims to have invested in more than 30 companies, mostly in Egypt. Some of these companies include ride-hailing service SWVL, software startup Instabug and AI chat-based personal assistant Elves, but its sweet spots are the hardware, education, healthcare, cleantech and fintech sectors.

“We try to cast a wide net given that, in essence, this is a transformative moment in emerging markets tech with the rapid digitization of the underlying economy,” a company spokesperson told TechCrunch. “So as expected, we’re seeing a great deal of flow in the digitization of financial services, healthcare and education technologies. Also, given the engineering talent, there are unique opportunities in SaaS products, semiconductors and IoT.”

Sawari Ventures invests in growth-stage companies, in particular. But it also operates