Tim Gocher’s journey as a pioneering impact investor in Nepal began with a two-week holiday to the country nearly 20 years ago. While trekking in the Himalayas, Gocher, from Essex in the UK, fell in love with the nation, its people and their “spirituality”. His love-affair for the rugged country led him to set up a charitable foundation to help alleviate the poverty that blights the country. He went on to marry a Nepalese lady he met through the foundation, and eventually launched the country’s first private equity fund. Dolma Impact Fund I closed in 2014, raising nearly $37 million. A second fund followed in “a terrific vindication of the strategy”: Dolma Impact Fund II has raised a total of $50 million at its second close, and it hopes to reach a final hard close of $75 million by November.
The funds, which focus on Nepal’s energy, healthcare and technology sectors, provide growth capital to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and renewable energy projects. They were established to generate private sector growth and jobs, positive social and environmental impact, and risk-adjusted market returns.
Raising funds to invest in a frontier market such as Nepal has been a labour of love, but it is also one of the most impactful places in which to invest, says Gocher, who is founder and CEO of Dolma Fund Management, and founder and chair of the Dolma Foundation.
Nepal struggles to attract investment from the ‘global North’. However, Gocher, who spent three years raising the first fund, says this leaves rich pickings for his fund.
The funds, which focus on Nepal’s energy, healthcare and technology sectors, provide growth capital to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and renewable energy projects. They were established to generate private sector growth and jobs, positive social and environmental impact, and risk-adjusted market returns.
Raising funds to invest in a frontier market such as Nepal has been a labour of love, but it is also one of the most impactful places in which to invest, says Gocher, who is founder and CEO of Dolma Fund Management, and founder and chair of the Dolma Foundation.