Media Release
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. International Development Finance Corporation approved 22 new transactions in the first quarter of FY2025 at the board and sub-board levels, totaling nearly $3 billion. The transactions, which span the globe, will advance key DFC priorities to promote health, energy, and food security; address the root causes of migration; revitalize critical infrastructure; support small businesses; and address other strategic and developmental imperatives in line with U.S. foreign policy objectives.
Transactions approved by DFC’s board of directors this quarter include:
- Increasing financial inclusion in Vietnam: A $100 million loan to Southeast Asia Commercial Joint Stock Bank (“SeABank”) will increase access to finance and support economic empowerment across Vietnam. The loan will expand upon $200 million in DFC financing committed in 2022 to SeABank to support individual entrepreneurs, small businesses, and climate adaptation and mitigation projects, with a focus on women borrowers and women-owned businesses.
- Two transactions enhancing connectivity in Brazil: An up to $150 million loan in partnership with IDB Invest and other development finance institutions to V.tal – Rede Neutra De Telecomunicações S.A. (“V.tal”), along with an up to $480 million (80 percent) guaranty to Deutsche Bank for its purchase of V.tal infrastructure debentures, will support digital infrastructure expansion in Brazil, specifically the spread and upgrade of fiber optic networks across the country. The project will enable more than 1 million new homes and 4,000 schools to be connected to the internet by 2027.
- Preserving Ecuador’s natural resources: $1 billion in political risk insurance enabled a debt conversion in Ecuador that will strengthen economic resilience and support the Amazon Biocorridor Program. The transaction is expected to generate $460 million in long-term funding for terrestrial and freshwater biodiversity conservation, climate resilience, and investment in the well-being of Indigenous people and local communities in the Ecuadorian Amazon.
- Bridging credit gaps for small businesses in Honduras: A $230 million loan to Banco Financiera Comercial Hondureña S.A. will support lending to small and medium-sized businesses in Honduras with specific focus on women-owned and -led businesses. The loan will help bridge the credit gap for small businesses in the country, supporting efforts to boost jobs, reduce poverty, and help address the causes of irregular migration.
- Two transactions stimulating business in Paraguay: An up to $70 million loan to Banco Rio S.A.E.C.A. and a $180 million loan to Sudameris S.A.E.C.A. will extend critical financing to Paraguay's small businesses, which represent 95 percent of all businesses in the country and 70 percent of all jobs, with a specific focus on women-owned businesses.
- Strengthening money markets worldwide: In partnership with USAID, a $100 million loan to FCC Securities, an affiliate of Frontier Clearing Corporation B.V. (“Frontclear”), will enable Frontclear to directly enter into money market transactions in emerging markets globally. This will provide needed liquidity in local financial markets and foster the development of money markets and interbank lending around the world.
- Strengthening Ukraine’s food security: Up to $325 million in political risk insurance will support investments in a grain and oilseed export terminal, grain silos, and an inventory of grain and oilseed. The transaction supports U.S. foreign policy objectives to bolster Ukraine’s economic resilience and critical economic sectors amid Russia’s ongoing war of aggression, and is expected to preserve jobs in Ukraine, maintain critical economic activity in the country’s agricultural sector, contribute to global food security, and buttress companies that provide significant tax revenues to the country’s government.
Please find more information on the DFC Board of Directors web page.
Additionally, DFC approved the following investments at the sub-board level:
- Funding Brazil’s healthcare innovators: An up to $15 million equity investment in DNA Capital VC II will help the fund back leading early-growth healthcare startups in Brazil that are driving innovation and improving the accessibility and quality of Brazilian healthcare.
- Helping Kenya’s health clinics go high-tech: A $1 million loan to Ilara Health Inc. will help upgrade private outpatient clinics delivering care to underserved communities in Kenya through procurement of diagnostic devices, health management technology, and pharmaceutical products.
- Keeping Moldova’s power on: $50 million in political risk insurance to ERU Moldova Electricity Security will enable short- and mid-term electricity contracts with Moldovan state-owned energy companies, helping the country avoid energy shortages and lessen its dependence on Russia.
- Financing women and smallholder farmers around the world: A $15 million loan to debt and equity fund Incofin cvso will enable loans in mostly rural and agriculture-focused microfinance institutions in Latin America, Africa, Eastern Europe, Central Asia, South Asia, and Southeast Asia.
- Financing fast-growing companies around the world: A $35 million loan to Lendable Decarbonization Fund will help extend debt financing to fast-growing companies working in the energy, transportation, and agriculture sectors around the world.
- Backing global climate entrepreneurs: $1.3 million in a pre-investment technical assistance grant to the Lightsmith Group, LLC will help create a new scalable investment platform to provide the full range of equity, credit, and technical assistance to growth-stage climate adaptation companies worldwide.
- Increasing access to finance in Latin America: A $20 million loan to Locfund Next, L.P. will help the fund continue to offer financing to underserved populations across Latin America. This loan builds on DFC’s previous financing for the fund’s support of underserved communities.
- Giving Africa the tools to upgrade infrastructure: A $20 million loan to Loinette Capital will help this growing asset-financing company provide small and medium-sized businesses across Sub-Saharan Africa with access to machinery critical to civil infrastructure and agricultural projects. The company’s focus is on funding earthmoving equipment and other construction equipment critical in the development of African infrastructure.
- Reforestation for carbon credits in Africa: Approximately $500,000 in technical assistance funding to Carbon Ventures Advisors, Ltd. will help develop a reforestation project in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to restore approximately 6,000 hectares of degraded Miombo woodlands, verify the resulting carbon credits, and, if successful, enable the sale of those credits to buyers of carbon credits.
- Boosting the world’s small businesses: A $30 million loan to MCE Social Capital, a nonprofit impact investor that uses a philanthropic guarantee model, will support the continuation and expansion of the organization’s lending activities to small businesses and microfinance institutions around the world.
- Enriching Kenya’s soil: $237,500 in technical assistance to Safi Organics will support feasibility studies for new biochar manufacturing facilities in Kenya and development of associated biochar carbon credit from the activity, supporting economic empowerment of local farmers through expanding access to high-quality and affordable fertilizer.
- Strengthening Africa’s supply chains: A $20 million bond investment in Solevo Group, Africa’s leading specialty chemical distributor with over 100 years of expertise, will expand its distribution capacity for agricultural inputs such as tailored NPK blended fertilizers, organic solutions, and biological products in Côte d’Ivoire. This investment aligns with the U.S. Government Global Food Security Strategy by enhancing the availability of high-quality, customized inputs to create more resilient supply chains, thereby improving the continent’s food security.
- Funding affordable healthcare in India: An up to $25 million investment in Somerset Indus Healthcare India Fund III will help the fund invest in small and medium-sized healthcare companies that are expected to increase access to and affordability of quality healthcare in India, especially in Tier 2 and 3 cities.
Transactions may be subject to additional steps prior to commitment and closing, including congressional notification.
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The U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) partners with the private sector to finance solutions to the most critical challenges facing the developing world today. We invest across sectors including energy, healthcare, infrastructure, agriculture, and small business and financial services. DFC investments adhere to high standards and respect the environment, human rights, and worker rights.