Buxeros Capital, a recently established public-private investment fund focused on Dutch companies in emerging economies and developing countries, has made its first investments.
In the past few months, Buxeros has made three investments: Blue21, focusing on floating cities; Profort, which focuses on orthopaedic care; and AFRIpads, a company producing reusable sanitary pads.
Blue21, which specialises in providing solutions focused on living on water, was founded by entrepreneur and investor Peter Thiel, and believes in the creation of self-sufficient, independent floating cities.
Founded by Amsterdam-based social entrepreneur Merel Rumping, Profort provides orthopaedic aids to people in decentralised areas of developing countries. The capital injection by Buxeros will enable Profort to open its first office in the Colombian city of Tunja this spring, the company said. It expects to open two more offices by the third quarter of 2021. In cooperation with local entrepreneurs, Profort aims to roll out a network of clinics in Colombia and other South American countries.
Founded by Sophia and Paul Grinvalds in 2010, AFRIpads develops reusable sanitary pads for women in Africa. The company initially delivered the product exclusively to NGOs which handed out the AFRIpads in refugee camps, but recently started selling the pads through retail channels from Uganda. The product is now sold in around ten countries.
The volume of funds managed by Buxeros Capital is EUR24 million, half of which is brought in by investors that include Ramphastos Investments, an investment company founded by Marcel Boekhoorn. The other half comes from the Dutch Good Growth Fund, which was created by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and run by the Dutch government. The Dutch companies it supports need to have a positive impact on local economies, while being compliant with international Corporate Social Responsibility guidelines.
Headquartered in the Netherlands and with an office in Cape Town, the fund supports its portfolio companies with knowledge, experience and access to its network, in addition to capital, according to the company.

”A company has to be able to contribute something to the country or region in which it is based,” said Corné Melissen, director at Buxeros. “At the same time we look at the economic feasibility and want to bring something more than just capital to the company we are investing in. After all, doing business in emerging economies calls for special knowledge, the kind of knowledge we at Buxeros have to offer,” he added.

Melissen continued: “As with all our other interests, Buxeros is all about entrepreneurship with an international focus that is an excellent fit with our other activities. I think that we can help a lot of companies achieve their international ambitions. The social component is of course an interesting extra dimension.”
