We are proud to present the 8 funds operating in East Africa that are among the 28 honored as the 2017 Best for the World Funds. All of them and their portfolio companies have completed a rigorous, third-party review of their impact, setting them head-and-shoulders above the rest.

Best for the World Funds have made a deep commitment to measuring impact using a holistic, third-party standard: The GIIRS Impact Rating system, developed by B Lab. Each fund’s portfolio companies are scored based on their performance on the B Impact Assessment, which is administered by B Lab and incorporates IRIS metrics. Each fund then undergoes a verification process at B Lab to become a GIIRS Impact Rated fund. The funds are able to benchmark their portfolio companies against 30,000 companies that have taken the B Impact Assessment—the only transparent comparison of its kind available to fund managers.

List of 2017 Best for the World Funds operating in East Africa:

• AlphaMundi Group provides debt and equity financing to scalable social ventures in microfinance, affordable education, fair-trade agriculture and renewable energy.
• Annona Sustainable Investments works with growth-capital in sustainable operating food-producing companies in Africa and Latin America.
• Bamboo Capital Partners invests in a global portfolio of companies in sectors like energy, healthcare, housing, financial inclusion and education.
• Catalyst Microfinance Investors is a private equity fund that invests in emerging, high potential microfinance institutions.
• ENGIE provides sustainable energy for poor and remote populations in emerging markets and fights energy scarcity in developed countries.
• LeapFrog Investments invests in businesses that provide insurance and financial tools to low-income or financially excluded people across Africa and Asia.
• Pearl Capital delivers growth capital to boost the productivity and profitability of Africa’s undercapitalized agriculture sector.
• Village Capital invests in peer-selected companies with a social or environmental mission sourced from Village Capital programs.

The honorees are listed by the category of impact, that is environment, governance, workers, customers or community, in which they are leaders. All of these funds made it to different Best for the World categories as shown :

GIIRS Impact Ratings funds receive a rating with two components:

• They are ranked bronze, silver, gold or platinum based on whether their portfolio companies’ purpose and mission inherently create social or environmental good. This is called the Impact Business Model (IBM) Rating.
• The second component of the rating is an Operations Rating, which is based on the companies’ governance structure, employee treatment and policies, community involvement, and environmental footprint.

Two funds operating in East Africa – AlphaMundi Group and Catalyst Microfinance Investors have achieved platinum rating in Best overall: IBM category. While another one, Annona Sustainable Investments also made it to Best Overall: Operations category with platinum rating.

For the full criteria on how the list was created, review the criteria page. You can also download the list on data.world.