Agora Venture Fund

Agora Venture Fund (AVF), the first fund launched by Agora Partnerships, is a pilot, micro venture capital fund designed specifically for early stage entrepreneurs in Nicaragua. Its goal is to help develop the field of impact investment and to demonstrate that, given support and access to financing, emerging market entrepreneurs can launch and grow successful companies that have tremendous social impact in their communities while at the same time providing a positive return to investors.

The fund is designed to invest equity and debt in companies too big to benefit from microfinance but too small to access traditional finance. AVF has made some of the smallest equity investments by any fund in Latin America, with equity investments as little as $25,000 Average annual sales for AVF companies are approximately $200,000 with an average entreprenuer salary of about $12,000 a year.

The Fund's investors include pioneering individuals and the DOEN Foundation.

The Fund’s strategy is based on the belief that early‑stage ventures are a missing key to economic development in emerging economies but that such ventures have been largely ignored due to perceived risks, high transaction costs, and information asymmetries. It seeks to confront these barriers, prove that they can be overcome, and attract capital to the sector.

The small and growing businesses targeted by the Fund are critical to the alleviation of poverty – seed/early‑stage, formal economy small businesses – but their needs are not addressed by the current capital market. While the Fund has chosen its target sector based on social and developmental considerations, the funding strategy and investment approach of the Fund are driven by business considerations – the Fund’s scope is social, but its strategy is market‑driven. Its mission is to help companies grow and thrive in the competitive marketplace.