Winners of the 2022 Deal Awards were selected from among deals submitted from over 20 GPCA member firms and determined by a distinguished panel of institutional investors from development finance institutions, insurance companies and pension funds through a rigorous scoring process. The awards were presented during the GPCA Investor’s Meeting in London.
Patria Investments received the 2022 GPCA Environmental Sustainability Award for its investment in Agrobiológica. The Brazil-based company is one of the first producers of biopesticides, a sustainable alternative to traditional pesticides. Following Patria’s investment in Agrobiológica in 2019, Agrobiológica expanded its R&D and production capabilities and established a dedicated regulatory team. Agrobiológica’s products now serve over 13% of the harvested acreage in Brazil, reducing traditional pesticide use by over 64.3m liters.
Actis received the 2022 GPCA Environmental Sustainability Honorable Mention Award for its investment in Sprng Energy. Sprng is an India-focused renewable energy platform established through a USD475m equity commitment from Actis in 2017. By early 2022, Sprng operated 2.3GWac in contracted and operating solar and wind assets, plus more than 5GWac of additional projects in the pipeline. As of the end of 2021, Sprng’s projects had avoided 4.42m tons of CO2 emissions. The company also developed industry-leading workplace conditions and safety standards, as well as environmental action plans to protect local flora and fauna. Shell acquired Sprng in August 2022 at a USD1.55b enterprise value – the largest energy acquisition in Indian history both in terms of deal size and energy capacity.
Insitor Partners received the 2022 GPCA Social Impact Award for its investment in Khmer Water Supply Holding (KWSH). KWSH is a piped-water utility company expanding access to safe and affordable water across rural Cambodia. KWSH acquired additional water utilities, expanded its pipe network and revamped its marketing campaign with investments facilitated from Insitor Impact Asia Fund. Through these efforts, KWSH increased the number of connected households from 6,000 at the time of IIAF’s initial investment to over 17,000 as of mid-2022. The company now provides over 2b liters of clean water annually, serving over 80,000 individuals as of the end of 2021.
Horizon Capital received the 2022 GPCA Social Impact Honorable Mention Award for its investment in Avrora. Avrora is a dollar store chain operating over 800 locations in Ukraine, with a focus on supporting local manufacturers, who represent 66% of company sales. Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Horizon was instrumental in Avrora’s crisis management strategy, helping to establish new suppliers and logistics routes and leverage the company’s infrastructure towards humanitarian efforts. The company is focused on reopening locations in reclaimed territory, as well as expanding into Romania and other neighboring markets to become a CEE regional champion.
Adenia Partners received the 2022 GPCA Gender/Diversity Award for its investment in Red Lands Roses. Established in 1996, Kenya-based Red Lands grows about 200 varieties of roses through 100% hydroponic methods, supplying customers across Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Adenia acquired the company in October 2021, recruiting a female CEO and establishing a board of directors made up of more than 50% women. The company maintains HR policies that support the recruitment and professional development of women, as well as employee benefits such as day care, school fee payment, coverage of antenatal healthcare costs and paid daily lactation leave.
Openspace Ventures received the 2022 GPCA Innovation Award for its investment in Kumu. Kumu is a Philippines-based live streaming platform focused on creating a safe, inclusive and authentically Filipino social network. The platform allows creators to stream content to audiences and monetize their work through virtual ‘gifts’ from viewers, providing an important source of income for its 1.3m content creators, particularly when traditional segments of the economy shut down during COVID-19 lockdowns. Since Openspace led Kumu’s pre-Series A in 2019, Kumu has integrated an AI-driven content moderation solution, and the number of financially successful creators has increased to more than 15,000 from 280, about 50% of whom are women. The company has raised over USD100m, including the first Series C raised for a Filipino startup.
Tricog Health, nominated by Blume Ventures, received the inaugural 2022 GPCA Better Tech Award. Tricog is an India-based healthtech providing remote cardiac diagnosis and care coordination in healthcare centers across India, Southeast Asia and Africa. The core technology combines AI with a global panel of cardiologists to diagnose cardiac patients, dramatically reducing the time to diagnosis from hours to ~6 minutes. To date, Tricog’s solution has screened over 10 million patients and diagnosed over 120,000 heart attacks. The business is at break-even, with only USD15m in total funding to date, and operating in 4,000 healthcare centers across 16 countries. In terms of impact, less than 2% of these healthcare centers had ECG machines prior to partnering with Tricog, which provides a pay-per-use, rent-to-own or monthly subscription to reduce the cost of access.
For more exemplary private capital investment cases in Asia, Latin America, Africa, Central & Eastern Europe and the Middle East, see the GPCA Deal Books.
See 2021 GPCA Awards.