Portfolio Partner Profile

responsAbility Climate Smart Agriculture & Food Systems Fund

responsAbility Investments AG is an asset manager in the field of development investments and offers professionally-managed investment solutions to private, institutional, and public investors. responsAbility Investments has partnered with CGIAR, the world’s largest global agricultural innovation network, to launch the Climate Smart Agriculture and Food Systems Fund, a science-based impact investing solution targeting food systems transformation. For over 15 years responsAbility has targeted improved rural livelihoods as a main impact theme for sustainable food financing by supporting small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that source from smallholder farmers.

The Fund seeks to address three main challenges:

By 2050, global food production needs to feed an additional two billion people, while reducing pressure on ecosystems and biodiversity.
The food system accounts for about a third of global greenhouse gas emissions. Achieving the necessary increase in food production requires a transition to a low-carbon and climate-resilient global food system.
Women play a critical role in smallholder agriculture, representing nearly half of the agricultural labor force. However, women are often underrepresented in terms of formal ownership in the agricultural space, or in terms of formalized employment.

As a solution, the Climate Smart Agriculture and Food Systems Fund aims to provide long-term expansion debt to innovative businesses operating in the food value chain in Asia Pacific, Latin America and Africa with the goal of mitigating climate change, reducing food loss, and promoting climate change resilience of smallholder farmers. The fund will be 2X aligned (with criteria as applicable at the time of fund launch), incorporating a gender lens in the investment process to foster gender inclusion and women empowerment within portfolio companies.

Featured Impact Story

Impact Story

Falcon Coffees

Coffee sustains the livelihoods of over 125 million people worldwide, with smallholder farmers producing nearly 80% of global supply. Despite its economic importance, the coffee value chain faces significant social and environmental challenges, including low profit margins for farmers and ecological degradation caused by traditional farming practices. Falcon Coffees, a UK-based coffee trader, addresses these issues by promoting transparency, fair compensation, and sustainable practices within the supply chain. With the $5,000,000 subordinated debt investment from responsAbility’s Climate Smart Agriculture and Food Systems Fund, Falcon is scaling its procurement of sustainably sourced specialty coffee. This financing supports medium-term growth in specialty coffee markets, providing smallholder farmers with access to higher-margin opportunities while incentivizing climate-positive farming practices. Over 80% of Falcon's traded coffee is certified (e.g., organic, Fair Trade, Rainforest Alliance), verified, or traceable. Additionally, Falcon’s initiatives, including climate risk assessments and gender action plans, aim to enhance climate resilience and reduce disparities, creating positive environmental, social, and economic impacts throughout the coffee value chain.

The photo above is of the Coffee Gardens in Uganda, one of Falcon Coffees’ suppliers.

Impact Story

Agri Exim

responsAbility Agri Exim02

Uganda’s agricultural sector, which employs over 70% of the population, faces challenges of low productivity and commercialization, leaving many smallholders in poverty. Agri Exim Limited, a subsidiary of the Suminter Group, promotes organic agriculture through a fully certified organic supply chain involving approximately 30,000 farmers. The company facilitates organic certification, provides high-quality seeds, training, community development support, and rewards farmers with price premiums for their produce. With $10,000,000 in senior debt financing from responsAbility’s Climate Smart Agriculture and Food Systems Fund, Agri Exim is expanding its operations, addressing financing gaps, and encouraging sustainable farming practices. The company’s initiatives reduce greenhouse gas emissions, enhance soil health through organic alternatives, and promote climate resilience via climate-smart interventions. Agri Exim’s certification programs and capacity-building efforts foster economic, social, and environmental development, while a gender action plan under development aims to reduce disparities within the value chain.