Over the last few month, NESsT’s South American operations have grown considerably. The NESsT acceleration portfolio expanded from 43 enterprises in 2023 to 68 enterprises, and two new companies have joined the NESsT Lirio Fund.
NESsT announces today exciting leadership developments in two of its South American markets, Colombia and Peru. Due to ever-growing opportunities to channel financial resources and business acumen to social enterprises based through the Andes and Amazon, Alejandra Ramírez Loaiza and Mauricio Verkooijen have been named Country Directors of Colombia and Peru, respectively.
Alejandra Ramírez joined NESsT in 2020, first as a portfolio manager before being promoted to Country Director of Peru in January. She has been responsible for the gender lens implementation in the NESsT portfolio and works to maintain relationships with other players in the ecosystem and create new alliances through networking, speaking engagements, and other sector-building activities. Over the last four years, she has been a part of investing $600,000 USD in grants and recoverable grants into the portfolio. Her key focus for 2025 will be expanding NESsT’s reach and impact in Colombia with the addition of new social enterprises to the portfolio and growing the local staff support. Of working hand in hand with social entrepreneurs and the people they support, she says: “These experiences change my life and inspire me to continue creating opportunities for these reality transformers.”
Mauricio Verkooijen, who joined NESsT in 2020 as well, has pioneered our work with an Indigenous-led portfolio in Amazonia, working alongside Indigenous organizations and a regional team in Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, and leads the NESsT Environmental Metrics Team to guide and include environmental impact in NESsT’s Performance Management Tool. His work will onboard 15 new portfolio companies by 2024 and has supported the fundraising of over $5 million USD with international cooperation agencies, foundations, and multilaterals to expand the Amazonia Initiative to the Andean region. His key focus for 2025 will be to continue the expansion of the Andes Amazonia Initiative and kickstart new partnerships that will diversify the Peru operations and portfolio. One of the driving aspects that make him enjoy his time with NESsT so far is “working with such a diverse and passionate team to drive impact and contribute to the most pressing issues in our societies.”
For more information about NESsT and its work in Peru and Colombia, visit nesst.org.