The Clinton Bush Haiti Fund, Sarona Asset Management (private firm based in Canada)and the Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA) joined the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in making investments in the Alternative Insurance Company (AIC). The Clinton Bush Haiti Fund and Sarona/MEDA are each investing $1 million in equity in the AIC, a Haitian insurance company founded in 2001.

In April 2012, IDB also announced a $2 million subordinated loan to AIC. This is the organization’s first-ever partnership with a private sector company.

AIC offers insurance products that range from commercial, auto, life, and health insurance to lower-cost insurance products, known as micro-insurance, targeted toward middle- and low-income clients.

“A robust insurance sector is an important precondition to sustainable reconstruction and mitigation of future risk in Haiti, a disaster-prone country,” Clinton Bush Haiti Fund CEO Gary Edson said. “Insurance access improves initial disaster response, gets individuals and businesses back on their feet faster, and reassures investors about the security of their investments. By strengthening AIC’s capital base, we are helping AIC offer this and, in turn, act as a beacon for what insurance in Haiti can be.”

“We are encouraged that more Haitians are discovering insurance as an instrument of well-being,” AIC´s CEO Olivier Barrau said.

Sarona Asset Management’s COO, Serge LeVert-Chiasson, explained that its decision to support the investment made by MEDA in AIC was driven by the quality of its senior management team, its leadership position within the insurance industry in the country and its focus on developing micro-insurance products for the working poor in Haiti.

About MEDA and SARONA

MEDA is an international NGO founded in 1953 that provides technical expertise and project management in the areas of financial services and market linkages. More specifically its work focuses on subsector and value chain analysis, risk management, product development, health systems, technology solutions and financial institution capacity development.

Sarona Asset Management is a private equity firm based in Waterloo, ON, and was spun out of MEDA in 2011. It is a co-founder and/or manager of a number of impact investment funds, including the Sarona and MicroVest groups of funds. Together, these funds have over $180 million in assets under management in emerging and developing country markets around the world.