elea Annual Review 2022

Since elea’s inception 16 years ago, through our portfolio companies, we have supported over 46 million people in their efforts to significantly improve their lives. At our annual strategy meeting, we committed ourselves to an ambitious growth mandate: we want to build on our already strong platform and have an even greater impact on the global fight against absolute poverty. “By 2030, we aim to triple our impact and reach 100 million people, which represents 5 percent of about 2 billion people earning less than USD 3 per day,” outlines Peter Wuffli.  

A growing challenge for people living in absolute poverty is the impact of climate change. If left unchecked, climate change will push up to 130 million people into poverty over the next 10 years and could cause over 200 million people to migrate within their own countries by 2050. To enhance the climate resilience of communities and mitigate climate change, we have decided to add a fourth topic, “climate and livelihoods”, to our current investment focus.

In 2022, we once again invested substantial resources in searching for and reviewing new investment opportunities. We are pleased to announce that, as a result, five innovative impact ventures have been added to our portfolio: Arbusta in Argentina, Pricepally in Nigeria, SMV Green Solutions in India, Signalytic in Uganda, and Voalá in Guatemala. In addition, we have opened an elea Africa Hub in Johannesburg to amplify our presence and capacities in that region.

One of last year’s highlights was the first in-person gathering of the elea Entrepreneurs' Community at the IMD campus in Lausanne for the completion of our "Leading for Impact" program. This group of entrepreneurs could hardly be more diverse across countries and cultures, investment topics, personality types, backgrounds, and perspectives. “One common goal unites us all: to fight absolute poverty with entrepreneurial means effectively and thus contribute to a better world,” states Andreas Kirchschläger.

The past year was diverse, eventful, and productive, and we could not have achieved all this without our committed team, our philanthropic investors, and the friends of elea. We are likewise thankful that external capital providers, such as entrepreneurially minded personalities and families, companies, and foundations, enable our impact model. We would also like to express our special gratitude to the elea Comité de Patronage for its generous, long-standing trust and commitment.

We thank you for your continued interest in elea and for supporting our efforts to fight absolute poverty with entrepreneurial means.

Dr. Peter A. Wuffli, Founder & Chairman

Andreas R. Kirchschläger, Founding Partner & CEO