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The Water Unite Impact (WUI) investment vehicle provides an opportunity to create a widespread impact that goes beyond typical WASH investments through our Water+ approach.
Wellers Impact partnered with Water Unite to create Water Unite Impact (WUI) and to develop the Water Unite Impact investment vehicle, enabling active investments in high impact “missing middle” entities.
WUI recognises and leverages critical global problems to create opportunities, supporting entrepreneurship and new technological advancements in and beyond the WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) sector.
The WUI investment vehicle has adopted a “Water+” approach in order to address the WASH sector’s rapidly changing landscape.
Our Investees:
Credit - Alexander James-Aylin
Credit - Alexander James-Aylin
Credit - Alexander James-Aylin
Our Year In Review (2023)
Structure of the Investment Vehicle
The WUI investment vehicle has been structured using an innovative financial model to leverage greater private sector capital into the water, sanitation and plastics recycling sectors and to build long-term financial sustainability of its investees. It demonstrates a creative way of enabling each dollar of funding to support more than one organisation to generate social and environmental impact multiple times over.
The investment vehicle is structured using micro-levy contributions from international retailers to provide catalytic capital. This capital is used to take a higher risk-reward position, acting as a credit enhancement mechanism to leverage additional Senior Capital. The Senior Capital is protected by the Catalytic First Loss Tranche Capital, as they will rank higher in the pecking order in a default scenario. Through the portfolio of investments made, the investment vehicle targets to deliver an attractive financial return to Investor Partners.
© Adam Dickens | Taking Pictures, Changing Lives
The WUI investment vehiclehas a significant leveraging effect: attracting external expertise and commercial capital into achieving social impact.
The diagram below depicts the innovative financial structure we deploy:
Want to know more?
Based on our learnings since the conception of the investment vehicle and our partnership with Water Unite, the vehicle officially began scaling up its impact and operations in 2023.
To find out more about our learnings and the history of the investment vehicle, take a look at our learnings fact sheet.
Wellers Impact is continuing to seek interested Investor Partners who have aligned impact and financial objectives with WUI.
Please contact us to learn more.
Retail Donations
As an example, retail partners make a donation, through a 1 cent/penny per litre of water sold, to Water Unite. Water Unite uses these donations for grants towards WUPIV. Current retail partners include:
Water Unite
Water Unite is a UK based, non-profit organisation that works in partnership with the private sector to raise and invest funds for clean water sanitation and plastics recycling. Funds are raised via voluntary donations, for example, one cent per litre from retailers of bottled water. Started in 2018, Water Unite is supported by The Co-operative (UK), Elior UK, The Rockefeller Foundation, Stone, Vitol, One Foundations and many other organisations supporting SDG focused outcomes.
If you are an organisation interested in partnering with Water Unite please visit waterunite.org.