Outrigger Impact–a new fund designed to deploy catalytic capital into the regenerative and sustainable Blue Economy in Small Island Developing States (SIDS)–is poised to start investing in the first wave of companies through its multi-million-dollar technical assistance facility.
The Outrigger Technical Assistance Facility (OTAF) will start deploying more than $3 million in investment readiness grants and repayable loans to further develop the investable pipeline of island-based projects.
The OTAF is a grant making facility designed to support early-stage regenerative and sustainable Blue Economy businesses across 35 SIDS. It aims to help them strengthen their capacities and capabilities so that potential projects can become eligible for further investment either by the Outrigger Impact Fund or other available catalytic funding.
Outrigger is one of the initiatives of the Ocean Risk and Resilience Action Alliance (ORRAA) and its Sea Change Impact Financing Facility (SCIFF). It marks the largest single investment of the UK’s Blue Planet Fund into one of ORRAA’s initiatives.
“Precious marine resources and the communities who depend on them have been under threat for too long,” said Emma Hardy MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs of the UK Government. “Our investment will fund projects that support the ocean’s sustainable recovery, as well as the coastal communities in developing states that rely on it.”
“Outrigger has been designed to provide much missed catalytic investments into small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and Nature-based Solutions in SIDS, to develop more sustainable and resilient communities, and conserve and enhance biodiversity and ecosystems,” said Simon Dent, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Outrigger Impact. “It’s both exciting and crucial to start deploying these first investments from the Outrigger Technical Assistance Facility in the coming months.”
The UK’s Blue Planet Fund backing of Outrigger Impact is part of a broader platform of a new wave of $5 million of support to ORRAA. This investment also includes:
- Nautilus, the Blue Guarantee Company– the first guarantee facility focused on the regenerative and sustainable blue economy designed to derisk investments.
- Guinea – West Africa Blue is pioneering a high-integrity blue carbon initiative in Guinea to restore mangrove forests while generating high quality carbon credits, creating a long-term, sustainable revenue stream for local communities and other stakeholders.
- Indonesia – Blue Alliance is building a scalable financial model for large-scale Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in Indonesia, through investment in four bankable reef-positive businesses. These include community-based aquaculture, sustainable fisheries, ecotourism, and blue carbon credit initiatives, all designed to curb coral reef degradation, uplift coastal livelihoods, and generate sustainable revenue streams for the MPAs.
- Philippines – Asian Development Bank is piloting a blended finance platform supporting blue SMEs across Asia-Pacific, with targeted capacity building and technical assistance in key marine biodiversity corridors in the Philippines.
Outrigger and Nautilus are both initiatives under the SCIFF – ORRAA’s collaborative effort to develop an open ocean financing architecture designed to drive at least USD$1 billion of private investment into coastal and ocean ecosystems, with a focus on the Global South, by 2030. This will provide a springboard from which to mobilize at least $2.5 billion of broader finance capital.
