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From a $200 microloan in Peru to a bond sold almost exclusively to pension funds in Singapore: four emerging-market funds, one question almost no one answers in public — what actually returned? 

Impact investing has a disclosure problem. The frameworks multiplied. AUM keeps growing. But deal-level outcomes — loss rates, exits, the defaults that didn't happen — almost never get discussed openly. In this compilation episode, they do.

Philipp Mueller, who at the time of recording was CEO of BlueOrchard, runs the world's largest microfinance fund - $2.4 billion deployed through a single-intermediary model across emerging and frontier markets, with 110 staff across Lima, Nairobi, Tbilisi, and Singapore. Nick O'Donohoe spent seven years as CEO of British International Investment, where a 2% return target became a 5% actual return — in an environment where almost every African country went through major macroeconomic or political turmoil during his tenure. Robert Kraybill, CIO and Managing Director at Impact Investment Exchange, built the Women's Livelihood Bond, six issuances, $228 million raised, listed on the Singapore Exchange, with the sixth bond sold almost exclusively to pension funds. And Jyotsna Krishnan, CEO and Co-Founder of EPIC World, has spent her career mapping the 70% of India's population that remains nearly invisible to global allocators and building the data infrastructure that makes it investable.

One argument connects all four: the risk is mispriced. And the evidence is now there to prove it.

Featured guests:

• Philipp Mueller, CEO, BlueOrchard (at time of recording), CEO of Blue Earth Capital AG (Present)
• Nick O'Donohoe, Former CEO, British International Investment
• Robert Kraybill, CIO and Managing Director, Impact Investment Exchange
• Jyotsna Krishnan, CEO and Co-Founder, EPIC World

Listen Next:  In Case You Missed It: Must-Hear Conversations Shaping Impact in 2026 (#129)" Link is https://sri360.com/podcast/conversations-shaping-impact/ 

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Key Takeaways:

• Four practitioners discuss deal-level performance data, loss rates, exits, and recovery rates - in markets most institutions walk straight past, making the case that the risk is systematically mispriced.
• How the world's largest microfinance fund deploys $2.4 billion through a single-intermediary model - one trusted local institution between the fund and the end borrower and why avoiding government-linked institutions is central to that discipline.
• How BII turned a 2% return target into a 5% actual return across seven years of African macro turmoil, and how the PSI Impact Score gave investment officers and committees a shared framework to evaluate impact rigorously.
• How the Women's Livelihood Bond grew from an $8.5 million first issuance to a $100 million sixth bond sold almost exclusively to pension funds, listed on the Singapore Exchange, backed by a 90/10 senior/first-loss structure and a partial Sida guarantee, and now underpinned by the Orange Bond Principles designed to open the gender lens investing market to other issuers.
• Why 70% of India's population remains nearly invisible to global allocators and why COVID, household resilience data, and EPIC World's distribution infrastructure make the case that the risk perception is wrong and the opportunity is larger than the capital flowing into it suggests.

Here's what you're in for:
00:00 – Intro: Impact Investing's Disclosure Problem

02:20 – Philipp Mueller, Blue Orchard: The World's Largest Microfinance Fund

02:29 – What Microfinance Is — and Why It Isn't a Donation

04:24 – Ticket Sizes, Markets & How Loan Sizes Vary by Geography

07:17 – Getting Capital from Investor to Base-of-the-Pyramid Borrower

08:08 – Single-Intermediary Model: Due Diligence, Credit Rating & Impact Assessment

11:06 – One Layer Only — and Why That Preserves Accountability

11:43 – Corruption, Rule of Law & Why Blue Orchard Avoids Government-Linked Institutions

13:42 – Real-World Impact: The Leather Craftsman in Piura, Peru

16:40 – Bridge 1

16:59 – Nick O'Donohoe, BII: Patient & Flexible Capital — What Those Words Mean at a DFI

18:33 – The 2% Return Target & the False Dichotomy on Market-Rate Returns

21:06 – How a 2% Target Became a 5% Actual Return

23:00 – Portfolio Construction: Catalyst & Growth, Balancing Impact with Return

25:00 – The Catalyst Portfolio: Designed for Investments Beyond Normal Risk Tolerance

26:08 – The PSI Impact Score: A Framework Investment Officers & Committees Could Both Trust

29:18 – Bridge 2

29:32 – Robert Kraybill, IIX: Empowering Women at the Intersection of Gender & Climate

30:14 – IIX's Theory of Change: Promoting Impact Investing as a Market, Not a Product

30:56 – The Women's Livelihood Bond: Genesis, Structure & $228 Million Raised

38:31 – First Loss, Senior Bonds & the Blended Finance Structure Explained

39:37 – Listed on the Singapore Exchange: Idealistic & Practical Reasons

41:36 – Bridge 3

41:51 – Jyotsna Krishnan, EPIC World: The Entrepreneurial Household as an Economic Unit

43:45 – The Biggest Misconception: Why This Market Isn't Risky

45:22 – 70% of India's Population & What the Unseen Middle Actually Means

45:51 – Why Businesses Built for Discretionary Spends Fail the Non-Discretionary 90%

50:48 – Field Visit to Damoh: Women-Led Farmer Producer Companies & Generational Change

54:30 – Outro