DWM began operation in 1994 as an emerging markets equity fund manager and consultant. We continue to run an equity fund focused on initial public offerings in developing countries. Following an initial transaction in 1999/2000, in 2003 our principals entered the socially responsible investment banking business in emerging markets and have become the leading specialized actor in this growing sector. DWM identifies socially beneficial businesses in emerging markets that are commercially sustainable and arranges financing for them from the international capital markets.

How We Got Here

Until DWM began its financial advisory and structuring work, microfinance and other socially motivated enterprises in the developing world had little or no access to the capital markets. The primary sources of term capital were philanthropic or governmental.
Our initial experience in microfinance, as philanthropists and active board members of microfinance institutions, helped us appreciate the financing challenges from the inside.

In turning Developing World Markets into a socially oriented investment bank, we combined our philanthropic experience with many years of emerging markets investment banking, both in the field and on Wall Street. In engineering the world’s first cross-border securitization of loans to microfinance institutions, we combined our experience on Wall Street, in emerging markets and in microfinance to create a financing that uses the techniques and structure of the market while providing vitally needed capital for sustainable poverty alleviation.

History

DWM’s first asset management contract, starting in 1994, was to be the outside emerging markets fund manager for the LHO Global Markets Fund. In addition we provided emerging markets consulting to CapMAC, MBIA, and, through LHO, to Brinson Partners, Inc. and UBS Brinson. In 1998, DWM established the world’s first and only emerging markets IPO fund and has invested over $150 million in 20 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe and Middle East, participating in around 350 Initial Public Offerings on local stock exchanges.  Many of these issuers are family-owned and nonprofit, with issue sizes ranging from $3 million to $ 20 million - very similar to the microfinance institutions we work with.