BlueOrchard Finance Limited
BlueOrchard Finance is a Zurich-based impact investment manager, majority-owned by Schroders, that channels capital into emerging markets. Founded in 2001, it runs about $5.6 billion across microfinance, climate, and inclusive finance. Its water exposure comes through a climate-insurance strategy backing flood-forecasting and extreme-weather-risk firms. As of 2026 it has backed 2 water companies across 3 deals.
Compiled by Antoine Walter, (don't) Waste Water, from official filings and direct intelligence in Leviathan.
The take
BlueOrchard is one of impact investing's originals: launched in 2001 as a UN initiative, it wrote the world's first commercial microfinance fund and today manages about $5.6 billion (as of June 2025), majority-owned by Schroders since 2019. Most of that money goes where finance is thin, into microfinance, inclusive finance, and climate across emerging and frontier markets.
BlueOrchard is not a water fund, and the way it reaches water is the interesting part. Its flood bets sit inside the InsuResilience Investment Fund, a blended-finance vehicle (public and private money pooled to lower the risk for private investors) built to widen insurance against extreme weather in developing countries. That mandate is how a microfinance house ends up writing cheques into flood technology.
BlueOrchard has used that strategy to back two companies that read the water before it arrives. Reask models extreme-weather and tropical-cyclone risk so insurers can price it; Previsico forecasts surface-water floods street by street, days ahead. Two water companies across three deals, both landed in 2025, both about turning a flood from a surprise into a number someone can insure.
BlueOrchard widens what a water investor can look like. The exposure here is financial: the forecasting and insurance that pay out when the water comes, aimed at the markets least able to absorb the hit. For a newcomer mapping where water capital actually lands, BlueOrchard marks the edge where climate adaptation meets water risk, and it keeps building there.
Water Commitment Score
Compiled from official filings, third-party records, and direct intelligence from investors and founders, in Leviathan · recomputed monthly · as of Jun 2026.
How they invest
Portfolio · 2 water companies
Invests alongside
Highlighted = profiled on (don't) Waste Water.
Frequently asked
- What does BlueOrchard Finance invest in?
- BlueOrchard Finance invests across microfinance, inclusive finance, and climate in emerging and frontier markets, mostly through private debt and private equity. Its water-relevant exposure sits in a climate-insurance strategy that backs flood-forecasting and extreme-weather-risk companies, helping vulnerable markets price and insure against climate shocks.
- How does BlueOrchard invest in water?
- BlueOrchard reaches water through climate adaptation rather than pipes or utilities. Its InsuResilience Investment Fund, a blended-finance vehicle, has backed Reask, which models extreme-weather risk, and Previsico, which forecasts live floods. That makes two water companies across three deals, both funded in 2025.
- Who owns and runs BlueOrchard?
- BlueOrchard has been majority-owned by Schroders since 2019, while keeping its own investment team and impact framework. It is led by CEO Michael Wehrle, with Maria Teresa Zappia as Deputy CEO and Chief Impact and Blended Finance Officer, who oversees the public-private partnership funds behind its climate work.
- Where is BlueOrchard based?
- BlueOrchard is headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, with a second Swiss office in Geneva and further offices in Luxembourg, Singapore, Lima, Nairobi, and Tbilisi. Founded in 2001, it manages about $5.6 billion and invests across emerging and frontier markets from this network.
- Is BlueOrchard a water fund?
- BlueOrchard is not a water fund. It is a broad impact investment manager whose water-relevant work is one slice of a much larger climate, microfinance, and inclusive-finance book. Its flood and extreme-weather bets come through a dedicated climate-insurance strategy, not a standalone water vehicle.