In conversation with Rashad Kaldany, Managing Director and Co-Founder, Blue Like an Orange Sustainable Capital

As sustainable finance continues to evolve, a critical challenge persists: how can private capital be effectively mobilized to advance inclusive growth and resilience, particularly in emerging markets?

To further explore this question, we spoke with Rashad Kaldany, Managing Director and Co-founder of Blue Like an Orange Sustainable Capital. Founded in 2017, the firm aims to address the growing need for investment strategies that deliver both measurable impact and competitive returns in alignment with the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Drawing on decades of experience at the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ), Kaldany offers a comprehensive perspective on structuring investments that align long-term financial value with sustainable and resilience performance. He is also a member of the FAST-Infra Label Executive Advisory Committee.

What was the founding vision behind Blue Like an Orange, and how does its investment approach differ from traditional models?

Blue Like an Orange was established to demonstrate that financial performance and positive social impact are not mutually exclusive. The firm focuses on sectors where both dimensions can be achieved—such as financial inclusion, infrastructure, healthcare, and sustainable agriculture.

Rather than emphasizing equity, the firm deploys structured credit, — providing flexible, growth-oriented capital while maintaining strong risk-adjusted returns. This approach addresses a capital gap that remains acute in many emerging markets: the space between traditional lenders and equity investors.

“Our name of the organisation comes from a surrealist poem that starts, ‘The Earth is blue like an orange.’ No one really knows what it means. But to us, it represents the idea that two things that seem incompatible—financial performance and social impact—can, in fact, coexist.”

The investment process emphasizes values alignment, supporting companies where impact is integrated into the business model from the outset. Capital is directed toward scaling solutions that drive local development, economic resilience, and climate adaptation.

How does the firm embed sustainability and manage risk throughout the investment process, and where does it see the greatest opportunity?

Every investment is screened for environmental and social risk, as well as its contribution to SDG outcomes. Monitoring continues throughout the investment lifecycle with regular reporting and independent verification when required. An annual impact report provides transparency and accountability to investors and stakeholders.

This level of rigor is increasingly expected across the institutional landscape. Investors are seeking solutions that integrate financial discipline with measurable sustainability outcomes—not as parallel goals, but as part of a holistic strategy.

In Latin America, the firm sees high-impact opportunities in several key sectors:

• Financial services for underserved SMEs
  
• Infrastructure across energy, mobility, and social sectors
  
• Climate-smart agriculture that supports both adaptation and livelihoods
  

Infrastructure is set to play a growing role in the firm’s third fund, with 50–70% of capital to be allocated toward climate-aligned and socially relevant real assets. The need for resilient infrastructure is matched by investor demand for long-term assets that contribute to global sustainability targets.

What role do frameworks like the FAST-Infra Label play in accelerating capital flows and building investor trust?

The sustainable infrastructure market is expanding, but investors continue to face barriers related to complexity, risk, and a lack of consistent definitions. Standards and tools that offer clarity are essential to accelerating the flow of private capital.

The FAST-Infra Label, a global labelling framework designed to evaluate the sustainability and resilience performance of infrastructure projects, addresses this need by establishing a clear and robust framework for project quality and sustainability performance. This enables better alignment between investors and developers.

“For investors focused on environmental, social and governance risks in infrastructure investment, the FAST-Infra Label creates the standardization and data availability to help manage those risks and inform decisions accordingly, in turn unlocking private investment to deliver positive impact globally.”

Blue Like an Orange has introduced the FAST-Infra Label to one of its clients in the renewable energy sector, where adoption is already underway.The firm believes that broader adoption of such frameworks by infrastructure investors and project developers could significantly reduce transaction costs, strengthen trust, and unlock capital at scale.

As demands grow for capital to deliver both strong financial returns and measurable social and environmental benefits, Blue Like an Orange Sustainable Capital offers a compelling model for structuring private investment to achieve both. Through disciplined credit strategies, embedded impact, and alignment with globally recognized frameworks, the firm is exemplifying how emerging markets can attract meaningful capital flows—while delivering competitive returns and socially impactful, environmentally resilient results.