The philanthropy arms of investment bank UBS and Swiss Re have agreed to invest over $2 million in a partnership with an Indonesia-based company that works to secure investments for scalable nature-based start-ups.
UBS Optimus Foundation and Swiss Re Foundation have teamed up with Terratai to launch various programmes in Indonesia, with a view to expand across Southeast Asia in time.
Terratai, which was founded by Matt Leggett earlier this year, said the funds would go towards its first cohort of early-stage businesses with a quantifiable impact on nature and biodiversity.
“This collaboration builds on our initial backing from RS Group, who recognised early the need to accelerate and nurture high potential business models that can protect and restore nature and support the communities who rely on it,” Leggett said in a statement.
“The partnership … now enables us to accelerate our mission to identify bold new business models that can protect the most at-risk land and seascapes in Indonesia, and to provide the tailored support and early-stage investment needed to take these companies to scale, ultimately paving the way to a more nature-focused economy.”
Terratai will apply several different types of metrics that the businesses they’ll work with will be measured on, including carbon mitigation and emissions avoidance, biodiversity protection and species management, habitat protection and restoration, and ecosystem service enhancement.
“Our new partnership with Terratai to protect biodiversity and the livelihoods of local communities in Indonesia, and over time across Southeast Asia, is a perfect example of how we at UBS Optimus Foundation incubate impact ventures, make them investable and scalable, while ensuring that they achieve positive outcomes for climate, biodiversity and local communities,” said Maya Ziswiler, CEO of the UBS Optimus Foundation.
The bank and its philanthropy arms last week released a report that invited others to partake in investing in Southeast Asian blue carbon projects.
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