The financial services sector is a key part of a thriving economy and critical for development. It facilitates payments, ensures savers have somewhere safe to keep their money, and provides direct capital to enterprises that need it.
In 2019, the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) commissioned an evaluation of the impact of BII’s financial institutions portfolio. This evaluation consisted of two phases, namely a portfolio-level review completed in 2020 (phase one), and a subsequent series of in-depth case studies (phase two).
This report presents the findings of the in-depth case study, exploring BII’s investment in Apis Growth Fund I (Apis).
The case study found evidence of our investment helping a first-time fund manager to achieve scale, attract commercial capital, and strengthen its ESG systems and processes. It also found that Apis’ investment in Direct Pay Online (DPO), a payment service provider offering digital solutions to small businesses, enabled the company to expand into new markets. A survey of DPO’s business customers highlights the positive impact of DPO’s digital payments service on their sales growth, business profitability, security and convenience.
