Partners Group makes impact investment

The Swiss firm's impact investment arm has committed an undisclosed amount of capital to Shared-X, which works with smallholders in emerging markets.

PG Impact Investments, the impact arm of Partners Group, has invested an undisclosed amount in Shared-X, an emerging market agricultural company focused on lifting smallholder farmers out of poverty.

The minority equity investment will be used to support the Shared-X’s international growth plans.

“Our commercial formula – growing high value specialty crops at high yield and directly selling them at international price levels worldwide, thus transferring yield and price benefits to our associated growers – is custom-designed to lift smallholder farmers out of poverty, even as it generates return for our investors,” said Shared-X chief executive officer Tony Salas.

Shared-X promotes advanced sustainable farming techniques such as nutrient injection and highly efficient irrigation and others to farmers in the developing world. The high-value crops it promotes include organic banana and pineapple, coffee and cacao. It currently works with more than 1,000 farmers in Peru and has plans to support as many as 12,000 farmers throughout Latin America and other regions over the next five years.

PG Impact Investments is an affiliate of the Partners Group focused on investments that deliver both financial returns and positive social or environmental impact. The unit has invested in 24 social enterprises since it was founded in 2006, including a 2015 investment in Runa, which makes organic teas and energy drinks from a rare leaf found in the Ecuadorian Amazon.