The international community strives to eradicate poverty by 2030. MEDA believes that by transforming economies, these goals can be reached. Through investment and blended finance, MEDA is responding to the barriers that prevent systemically marginalized populations from building businesses that can create prosperity for themselves, their families, and their communities. Some of these barriers include gender-based barriers, market risks, climate vulnerabilities and limitations in innovative finance.
Recognizing the critical role of patient capital investment for social good, MEDA’s impact investment history dates to its founding in 1953 when it assembled a pool of early-stage venture capital and invested this, along with wrap-around business growth advisory assistance, in Sarona Dairy, then Paraguay’s first commercial dairy. It prospered, connecting thousands of small dairy farmers to markets and is today Paraguay’s leading corporate dairy. Buoyed by such success, MEDA expanded its impact investment work in the decades since.