One of the key challenges faced by new and growing water and environmental businesses operating in the region is limited access and availability to financial resources. These challenges experienced by entrepreneurs are linked to the high-risk environment, limited pipeline of investment opportunities, and the infancy of impact investing for the region.
In order to address the lack of availability and access to financial resources, cewas has developed an impact financing toolbox for water and environmental entrepreneurs in the start-up, acceleration and scaling phase.
This platform is strongly informed by the experience cewas has in preparing more than 100 impact-oriented environmental enterprises in Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine, and Iraq for investment readiness and growth. Moreover, cewas has used the work on investment readiness to consult with a range of impact investors and investment related actors. This has resulted in close working relationships and a platform design that shall respond to the needs of impact investors and enterprises alike. The impact financing platform comprises of the following features:
- A water enterprise typology, featuring detailed data on the different types of water enterprises in terms of their their business model, operating context, impact potential, and financial profile.
- Factsheets on (Innovative) Financing Instruments coupled with insights into when different financing instruments are relevant and what implications they have for water-related enterprises.
- A map of Investors relevant for enterprises active in the water sector
- A comprehensive tool to assess the investment readiness of water-related enterprises.