Overview

The Amazon Andes Fund, developed by IMPAQTO Capital, is a USD 30M private debt and equity vehicle deploying flexible capital (working capital, equipment financing and equity) to increase local value capture.

Innovation

Forest-compatible value chains have demonstrated commercial potential, but financial flows remain concentrated in established volume agriculture and other extractive sectors. Across Amazonia, soy and cattle attract over USD 30 billion in annual financing.

That’s 100 times more than the approximately USD 300 million attracted by biodiversity-based products. Moreover, 30% of greenfield investment in Peru, Colombia, and Ecuador between 2020 and mid-2025 went to mining. The gap is particularly acute outside Brazil, which captured 85% of greenfield investment across the Amazon, leaving the Andean Amazon’s lessdeveloped investment ecosystem unable to consistently originate and scale opportunities.

The Amazon Andes Fund addresses this mismatch between available capital and enterprise needs by deploying debt and strategic equity aligned with business maturity and cash flow profiles across the value chain, taking a blended approach to managing risk in earlier-stage and geographically dispersed businesses. By helping downstream enterprises grow and secure higher-value markets, the fund aims to support more reliable purchasing, stronger producer relationships and better income opportunities close to origin. A regional team with networks across producers, processors and enabling businesses supports origination and execution, connecting investment decisions to commercial opportunities and financing needs along the chain.

Impact

The Amazon Andes Fund aims to make forest-positive economic systems more economically viable and competitive than extractive alternatives across the Andean Amazon, improving livelihoods and economic resilience while reducing pressure on forests and regenerating degraded ecosystems.

This translates into three outcomes: strengthened and consolidated sustainable Andean Amazon value chains, improved livelihoods and economic resilience, and reduced pressure on forests, alongside a crosscutting outcome of increased local value capture across sustainable value chains.

“The Andean Amazon doesn’t lack good businesses, it lacks capital designed for how its forest economy actually works. The Lab gave us the rigor to move from seeing that gap to designing an instrument that closes it, with every structural choice tested against one question: does this keep forest standing and carbon in the ground?”

Rick Kellett, Fund Principal

Design

Amazon Andes Fund deploys flexible capital tailored to each company’s business model and financing needs. The Fund provides debt for working capital and CAPEX, particularly to expand processing capacity, strengthen teams, and grow commercial operations. Early financing needs range from approximately USD 1M to USD 1.5M, with initial debt tickets ranging from USD 500,000 to USD 900,000, and equity and quasi-equity tickets from USD 250,000 to USD 500,000. Debt features a 1-year tenor for working capital and a 5-year tenor with a 6-month grace period for equipment finance, while equity investments target a 7 to 10-year holding period. The Fund targets growth-stage companies across midstream and downstream, forest-compatible value chains in the Andean Amazon sourcing from local producers. These include consolidated chains such as cacao and coffee, and emerging chains such as açaí and Brazil nut, with strong value-add potential.

Pipeline

A Phase Zero study mapped 101 enterprises across Ecuador, Colombia, Peru and Bolivia, establishing an initial cacao pipeline while identifying adjacent opportunities in coffee, Brazil nuts, guayusa and other products. Enterprises range from small, founder-funded businesses to established companies with external equity and international sales channels. AAF will deploy debt and strategic equity according to business maturity and cash flow needs, targeting processing, branding and market access opportunities that capture greater value downstream and strengthen sourcing relationships with producers.