Category: Board members and advisors

Vital Capital has made a strategic investment in Vastpoint, a pioneering land
management and geospatial solutions company, to help scale its efforts in
transforming how land is owned, managed, and used in some of the world’s most
vulnerable regions.

Vastpoint delivers land administration and advanced GIS technologies to support
governments and communities across Africa, Asia, and Latin America creating more
transparent, inclusive, and effective land systems and increasing property tax
collection. According to the 2024 Prindex Report, 23% of adults across 108 countries
feel insecure about their property or land rights; an increase of 239 million adults
over the past four years [1].

“From advancing food security and poverty reduction to enabling sustainable
urbanization and climate resilience, secure land tenure underpins a wide range of
global development goals,” said Tamar Pashtan, Vital’s Head of Impact. “With most
of the world’s population lacking secure land and property rights, Vastpoint is
tackling one of the most fundamental – and overlooked – development challenges of
our time.”

To date the company has impacted over three million people, issued more than
820,000 land titles, and provided training for more than 20,000 individuals. With
World Bank data [2] from 53 countries showing that over 70% of women do not own
any land, Vastpoint’s focus on gender equity is especially critical: more than half of
its land titles benefit women as owners or co-owners.

“Vastpoint is a perfect example of how technology, innovation, and strategic
investment can come together to address systemic development challenges,” said
Nimrod Gerber, Managing Partner at Vital Capital. “By improving land security, we’re
not only empowering communities, we’re laying the groundwork for long-term
prosperity and resilience.”

Vital’s investment follows an initial engagement that included seeding Vastpoint’s
initial project, overseeing a successful proof-of-concept. This de-risking approach is
core to Vital’s “build and re-build” strategy, which focuses on transforming greenfield
projects into scalable, high-impact and high-performing businesses. In addition, Vital
has helped to advance its mission of addressing six distinct impact objectives,
including sustainable infrastructure, climate resiliency, and economic empowerment.

Through this latest investment, Vital will partner with Vastpoint’s management to
accelerate the company’s expansion and bring first-time land ownership to millions
more people in some of the world’s least developed countries. Like all companies in Vital Capital’s portfolio, Vastpoint is designed to deliver market-rate returns alongside
measurable social impact.

Visit the Vastpoint website for more information: https://vastpoint.com/

1 https://www.prindex.net/news-and-stories/new-global-data-from-108-countries-reveals-increasing-tenure-insecurity-urgent-policy-action-required
2 https://blogs.worldbank.org/en/agfood/4-priorities-for-increasing-women-s-access-to-farmland

COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, shone a spotlight on climate finance and the urgent need to unlock capital for underserved regions. In an interview with Environmental Finance article on the eve of the conference, Tamar Pashtan, Senior Director and Head of Impact at Vital Capital, outlined key priorities for negotiators to address, emphasizing the important role of blended finance in mitigating risks and increasing impact.

“Pooling and scaling blended finance for climate outcomes in the Global South will be one of the greatest levers to attract private capital in our markets,” said Tamar.

Tarmar highlighted the unique ability of blended finance vehicles to de-risk investments, attract new investors, and expand limited partner commitments, all of which are essential to meeting the ambitious climate finance goals being debated at COP29.

Read the full piece in Environmental Finance here.

In a recent ESG Investor article, Vital Capital’s Head of Impact, Tamar Pashtan, shared her insights on the evolution of private equity’s role in impact investing in sub-Saharan Africa, incentivising local institutional investors and Vital’s approach to creating its own deal flow.

“Zeroing in on basic needs is a winning strategy because it drives real transformative change, such as first-time access to potable drinking water and essential nutritional improvements in the form of proteins and dairy products.”

Check out the full article here.

The Vital Capital team is delighted to receive two Environmental Finance IMPACT awards: one for Asset manager of the year – mid-size and the second for impact measurement and metrics (in-house IMM framework). These awards recognize the work of the world’s leading impact investors and, according to the judges, “highlight emerging pockets of best practice.” At a time when investors across the globe are increasingly seeking to align profit with purpose, these honors are all the more meaningful.

The recognition is testament to Vital’s dedication to our investees and to ensuring their future sustainability – as well as our thoughtful impact measurement and management, which drives tangible outcomes for our investors, communities and the environment.

We are proud to continue to move the dial forward towards greater accountability and standardization. Find more information on our award wins here.

At Vital Capital, we believe that understanding the challenges facing our end users is key to developing sustainable solutions that deliver maximum impact.

That’s why we don’t engage only with investors and our portfolio companies as part of the investment process – but also with the communities directly served, through beneficiary studies conducted at the outset of projects. The findings provide a baseline to help quantify the potential impact of an investment. They also help us to refine our approach and develop better, more relevant solutions that build community trust.

We’re pleased to share the key outputs and learnings from the beneficiary studies conducted by our environmental infrastructure platform, Vital Environment, with our support, for two water projects in Karnataka, India. The Raichur Water Project will provide the necessary infrastructure to deliver tap water to 1.77 million people, 64% of whom will be receiving first-time household tap water access. The study findings indicate that the impact of the infrastructure is expected to disproportionately benefit women and girls, 78% of whom are fetching water 2-3 times per day. The Karnataka Irrigation Project involves the construction of piped irrigation infrastructure for 12,000 farms in the severely drought-stressed region, benefitting over 60,000 people, where 32% of the population participates in seasonal climate-induced migration for basic income.

We invite you to review the special feature below and welcome your feedback. We look forward to sharing the results of our impact assessments as the project develops in the years ahead.

Insights from Karnataka