Investment

JICA Commits $40 Mn to Aavishkaar Capital’s Global Supply Chain Fund for Asia and Africa

• ByStartupStory     |    August 27, 2025

The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has committed $40 million (₹334 crore) to Aavishkaar Capital’s Global Supply Chain Support Fund (GSC Fund), bolstering the Mumbai-based impact investor’s mission to support small and medium enterprises (SMEs) across Asia and Africa.

The announcement was made by Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba during the ‘Economic Partnership in Indian Ocean – Africa Forum’, held on the sidelines of the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD 9) in Yokohama.

A Non-Dilutive Credit Fund

The GSC Fund, Aavishkaar Capital’s eighth fund, is structured as a credit vehicle that differs from traditional venture debt. Rather than short-term financing, the fund provides performing credit with tenors of three to five years, with repayments aligned to company cash flows. This approach, according to Monu Jain, Partner at Aavishkaar Capital, creates “structures that are beneficial for both the company and the fund.”

Backed by multiple global development institutions, including German development bank KfW, the fund aims to raise a total corpus of $220 million, targeting enterprises in agriculture, food processing, and manufacturing within global supply chains. So far, it has deployed around $30 million across eight investments in Asia and Africa.

Expanding Indo-Japanese Cooperation

For JICA, which manages Japan’s official development assistance programs, this commitment represents an expansion of its longstanding partnership with Aavishkaar. Having previously supported Aavishkaar funds in India, the development agency is now widening its support to other markets in Asia and Africa.

“By investing in the fund and entering a new chapter of collaboration with the Aavishkaar Group, we hope to elevate the well-established India-Japan partnership and further strengthen our commitment to impact investment in Africa and Asia,” said Mikio Hataeda, Senior Vice President at JICA.

Vineet Rai, Founder and Chairman of Aavishkaar Group, welcomed the announcement, stating: “Within the Aavishkaar Group, there has been a constant partnership with JICA. It has taken us some time to reach a significant size of investment from Japan, and I believe this is an opportunity to open up more investment from Japan, especially given Indo-Japanese cooperation and the increasing appetite among Japanese investors to look at India.”

Strengthening Impact Investing

Aavishkaar Capital, part of the broader Aavishkaar Group, currently manages around $550 million in assets across eight funds, investing in sectors such as sustainable agriculture, financial inclusion, and essential services. At the group level, Aavishkaar manages $1.3 billion in impact assets, making it one of the most prominent homegrown impact investment platforms in the Global South.

Impact investing in India and emerging markets has been drawing international attention, with development finance institutions (DFIs) increasingly seeking opportunities to support enterprises delivering measurable social and climate impact. Aavishkaar’s credit-based model offers SMEs flexible, non-dilutive funding, addressing both financing gaps and sustainability goals.

With JICA’s anchor investment, the GSC Fund is expected to scale its support for emerging companies in global supply chains, further aligning with the broader agenda of India-Japan collaboration in Africa and Asia.

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