QBE announced as anchor investor in Save the Children Impact Investment Fund
PRESS RELEASE
QBE Insurance Group (QBE) is delighted to be the anchor investor in Save the Children’s Impact Investment Fund, which today announced its first close. The investment will form part of the insurer’s dedicated Impact Investment program, Premiums4Good.
The six million-dollar close will enable Save the Children to start investing in some of the innovative enterprises in its pipeline, in Australia and around the world.
The fund opened to investors in January and is aimed at supporting enterprises that emphasise social innovation and address pressing social and humanitarian issues. The fund will focus on edtech, e-health and fintech innovations improving the lives of disadvantaged children and families.
Gary Brader, QBE Insurance Group Chief Investment Officer, called the investment an exciting addition to QBE’s Premiums4Good portfolio, which announced a growth to USD904 million in impact investments earlier this month.
“We recognise the need for leading institutional investors to play a bigger part in investing with consideration of not only the financial returns but also the social and environmental returns. Our Premiums4Good initiative has been investing in impact investments for five years now, and we are delighted to be able to be the anchor investor with Save The Children in this important fund.
“This investment, with its deep impact, supports our ambition to grow our impact investment allocation to USD2 billion dollars by 2025.”
Save the Children Australia’s CEO Paul Ronalds said the first close was an important and exciting milestone:
“Our fund is about creating solutions to some of the world’s most complex problems. The Fund will invest in enterprises working to improve the lives of vulnerable children. We are all about helping entrepreneurs and start-ups scale faster. Investors were attracted to the Fund’s ability to source investment opportunities from within its global network and add value to these businesses following an investment."
Premiums4Good is an insurance industry first that sees QBE invest a portion of all customer premiums into investments that have additional social or environmental benefits. The initiative supports QBE’s belief that it can deliver attractive risk-adjusted returns and business value, while also seeking to deliver positive social and environmental impact and resilience for communities.
QBE’s Premiums4Good portfolio has, to date, invested in 66 enterprises including social impact bonds, social bonds, green bonds and infrastructure – supporting a range of initiatives from renewable energy and sustainable infrastructure, to social services and programs to support vulnerable people and communities around the world.
