About This Fund
Acre Export Finance Fund I LP is the flagship private debt impact fund of Acre Impact Capital, a London-based blended-finance investment manager founded in 2019 by Hussein Sefian (CEO, former Global Head of Strategy at BNP Paribas CIB) and Faisal Khan (CIO). The fund held its first close in April 2024 at approximately $100 million of its $300 million target, attracting the European Investment Bank (EIB), FSD Africa Investments, Ceniarth, and Investec Bank as initial limited partners. The fund received the Environmental Finance Impact Initiative of the Year — Africa (2024) and the Krutham Africa Impact Investment Awards Financial Structure of the Year, recognising its structural innovation in mobilising private capital for emerging-market infrastructure.
Acre Export Finance Fund I is the first fund globally structured to leverage export credit agencies (ECAs) as a systematic impact investing mechanism. ECAs typically guarantee 85% of infrastructure project loans to sovereign borrowers in developing markets; the fund targets the remaining 15% commercial debt tranche — a segment structurally underserved following the withdrawal of European commercial banks post-2008. Each $1 of fund capital unlocks approximately $5.6 of total private capital in ECA-backed project financings. Loans carry sovereign-backed credit risk, long tenors of up to 22 years, and are concentrated in four impact pillars: Renewable Power, Health Food and Water Scarcity, Sustainable Cities, and Green Transportation. The portfolio targets 15–20 projects concentrated in Sub-Saharan Africa.
The fund's structural design addresses a critical financing gap: after the Basel III regulatory framework curtailed commercial bank appetite for long-tenor sovereign-backed loans in developing markets, ECA-backed infrastructure financings have lacked viable commercial debt providers. Acre Impact Capital positions the fund as the institutional solution — offering investors sovereign credit risk, ECA guarantee protection, long-duration returns, and measurable development impact across Africa's most capital-constrained infrastructure sectors.