Function: Partner
Contact: bernadette@fount.eu

Bernadette has around 25 years structured finance and strategic advisory experience of which around 20 years experience in impact investing. Bernadette is co-founding partner of FOUNT since 2011. Within FOUNT, Bernadette has been leading several strategic advisory assignments focusing on designing, implementing and evaluating various impact investment initiatives in different sectors and geographies. Bernadette has set-up several impact investment funds, is currently Director of BIX Capital and Director and IC member of the Good Fashion Fund. Additionally she is Advisory Board member of Berendina Micro Finance.

She has worked with different type of clients and investors in various countries in Africa, Asia, CEE and Latin America.

Before establishing FOUNT, Bernadette co-founded Corporate Connect, a financial advisory firm with a focus on impact investing in emerging markets, and worked at Accenture, BTMU investment banking (London) and ABN AMRO Bank’s investment banking division (Amsterdam).

Function: Partner
Contact: bob@fount.eu

Bob is Managing Partner and co-founder of FOUNT. He has over 20 years of investment experience and a wealth of experience in setting up and managing funds. Bob is currently Fund Director of Good Fashion Fund, Board and IC-member for BIX Capital as well as Board and IC-member for AGRI3 Fund Manager. Additionally, he is Advisory Committee-member for the Mergence Renewable Energy Debt Fund in South Africa.

Within FOUNT, Bob has been leading in the long-term assignment for portfolio management and refinancing of a social housing loan portfolio in 17 emerging countries and played a key role in ‘investment readiness’ assignments for several clients. Prior to FOUNT, Bob worked for impact investment organisations FMO, Triodos Investment Management and ProCreditBank and gained hands-on experience in general management and SME banking. He has a vivid interest in sustainable business operations and has been on assignments in numerous countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Central- and South Eastern Europe.

Function: Managing Director BIX
Contact: jeroen@bixcapital.nl

Before founding BIX Capital, Jeroen was deputy-director of the Shell Foundation. In this role he was among others responsible for the Breathing Space (Access to Energy) programme and setting up Shell Foundation’s carbon based pre-finance cookstove investments. With this experience, Jeroen created the investment concept of “Impact-based pre-finance” for BIX Capital. Previously, he worked for FMO, the Dutch development bank as investment officer private equity in Eastern Europe and Subsahara Africa and at KPMG transaction services on wide ranging due diligence engagements, mainly for European Financial Institutions.

Function: Legal Counsel BIX
Contact: caroline.noothoven@bixfund.com

Caroline is a finance transaction lawyer who has been involved in lending and private equity transactions in emerging markets for over 15 years. She started her career in private practice with focus on capital market transactions, but subsequently worked in-house with the Dutch Development Bank FMO, the Investment Fund for Health in Africa, DOB Equity and, since 2015, BIX Capital. Caroline is also involved with another Cardano Development initiative, the Water Finance Facility. During a period of 4 years Caroline was located in Lagos, Nigeria.

Function: Senior Investment Advisor
Contact: gerard@fount.eu

Gerard has more than 20 years of work experience, including 6 years of direct impact investing experience in Africa. From 2006-2015 he worked for two different private equity firms: HAL Investments (2006-2009) and the Investment Fund for Health in Africa (“IFHA”, 2009-2015, investors including IFC, APG and FMO). Both funds are well-respected investment organisations with an international focus. Through his broad work experience, Gerard has developed a keen insight into the entire investment process, from the first contact with a potential investment candidate to portfolio management activities.

He joined FOUNT in early 2015 as a Senior Investment Advisor. Since then, Gerard has worked for Reall (affordable housing investor in Africa and Asia, based in the UK), PMIC (microfinance organisation in Pakistan), IFHA (healthcare PE fund focused entirely on Africa) and BIX Capital (clean energy, main focus on Africa and Asia), amongst other. Assignments included performing a market study, financial modelling, compiling an Investment Memorandum as well as deal execution.

Gerard obtained his Master’s degree in Macroeconomics at the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, the Netherlands.

Function: Controller
Contact: sabien@fount.eu

Sabien has worked in finance positions for various profit and non-profit organisations for over 20 years. Besides having a masters degree in General Linguistics, she is a Qualified Business Controller (QC). The seven years she spent working and living in Botswana and Ghana acquinted her with development issues and sparked her interest in impactful busniness models. Sabien joined FOUNT as of 1 October 2019 and is already somewhat familiar with the firm thanks to her work for Goodwell in 2012-2013. Prior to joining FOUNT she worked for Porticus CV as a business controller.

Function: Investment Advisor
Contact: samira@fount.eu

Samira started her career at the Commercial Bank of Africa in the risk management department and thereafter offered pre-investment support to various Small and Medium Sized companies in East Africa. Prior to joining FOUNT, she was a Senior Analyst at Ernst and Young LLP where she worked on various transactional advisory assignments in infrastructure, financial services, retail, and hospitality. She has supported various projects in due diligences, financial modelling, feasibility studies and data analysis. Samira is passionate about building communities in developing countries through impact financing and was Project Manager to a social impact green bond in Kenya sponsored by Cardano Development B.V and Water Finance Facility.

She holds a Master’s with Distinction in Development Finance from the University of Manchester and a Bachelor’s Degree in Financial Economics from Strathmore University.

Function: Investment Advisor
Contact: casper@fount.eu

Casper joined FOUNT in August 2020. He has over 12 years of experience in development finance covering all stages of the investment process. Before joining FOUNT, Casper developed his career at Dutch development bank FMO, where he gained experience in different roles in front office and credit risk departments. From 2012-2016 he contributed to the development of FMO’s Agribusiness portfolio as Investment Officer focusing on debt transactions throughout Latin America. From 2017-2020 he worked in FMO’s Special Operations department where he managed restructuring and recovery of distressed investments in, amongst others, agribusiness, renewable energy and real estate sectors in Latin America, Africa and Asia.

Function: Administration and Communication Assistant
Contact: liane@fount.eu

Liane joined FOUNT in September 2020. She has an extensive background in providing administrative and operational support at non-profit organizations such as Oxfam Novib, Wilde Ganzen Foundation and the Department for Development Cooperation of the Netherlands Antilles. Besides she has more than fifteen years of experience in (multilingual) communication, and in writing and in (web) editing in her mother tongue Dutch.

Liane studied Latin American Studies at Leiden University. She lived in several Latin American countries as a tour leader and in other roles on Curacao, her island of birth.

Function: Investment Advisor
Contact: christiaan@fount.eu

Christiaan joined FOUNT in October 2020. Prior to this, Christiaan was active as strategy consultant at Eden McCallum. In his previous role, he worked on a wide range of strategic business challenges, ranging from international growth strategies, commercial due diligence and operational improvement initiatives, for SMEs and multinational corporates across a variety of sectors. Key responsibilities included project management, financial modeling and market analysis. Before this, he gained investment experience as analyst at PGGM Private Equity and Kempen Investments.

Christiaan holds a Master’s degree in Quantitative Finance from the Erasmus University Rotterdam, and obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Econometrics & Operations Research cum laude.

Function: Analyst
Contact: buck@fount.eu

Buck joined FOUNT in May 2021. Prior to this, Buck did research on sustainability in the beef sector at the Ministry of Agriculture. After that he did an internship at the Dutch entrepreneurial development bank FMO where he worked on the sustainability framework for agricultural investments. During his studies he focused on international sustainability challenges, and he went to Spain and Senegal for a couple of months to look into sustainable entrepreneurship.

Buck holds a master’s degree in Agricultural Economics from the Wageningen University, with a bachelor’s in Development Economics.

Function: Investment Advisor DIGH
Contact: mattijn@fount.eu

Mattijn is an associated partner for FOUNT since early 2015. Mattijn has more than 20 years of experience in the financial services industry and worked for large financial institutions like ING, ABN AMRO and RBS. Mattijn started off his career with ING as a financial analyst at ING, where after Mattijn worked for ABN AMRO as BU controller. From 2005, Mattijn worked on a wide range of financial restructuring transactions for ABN AMRO, and later RBS. In this role, Mattijn developed outstanding strengths in balance sheet analysis, financial restructuring and deal management, gained through experience and exposure to complex situations with client across Europe.

Within FOUNT, Mattijn is working on restructuring, managing and refinancing of the DIGH portfolio.

Function: Investment Advisor GFF
Contact: ravid@goodfashionfund.com

Ravid Chowdhury has been an Advisor with FOUNT since 2018 supporting as an investment specialist with experience in the apparel sector, as well as in South and Southeast Asia investments.

Prior to FOUNT, Ravid worked for TAU Investment Management (Hong Kong), a textile and apparel focused private equity fund as an Investment Associate supporting transactions in South and Southeast Asia. He has consulted on apparel projects and assessments for Betterwork (Jordan), IDH (Netherlands), Innovations for Poverty Action (Bangladesh) and Impact Economy (Switzerland).

Following TAU, he worked as the CFO of Pathao, Bangladesh and Nepal’s first ride-sharing company, leading the company through four equity and mezzanine financing rounds totaling USD 20 million. He is additionally on the board of three VC-backed tech companies with operations in South Asia.
Ravid is based in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Jayanth is an investment professional with a background in impact investing, impact investment advisory and venture capital-focused on Asia and Africa. He is skilled in the entire investment process from origination to transaction closure and portfolio management. He has led transactions as part of both equity (Ennovent IIH) and debt (Grameen Impact) investment teams across food & agriculture, financial services/inclusion, health, education, energy, technology and waste management.

In his advisory roles, Jayanth has led multi-cultural and international teams to implement detailed impact investment advisory projects across emerging markets. He has successfully consulted on impact strategy, feasibility, investment readiness, impact evaluation, etc. for impact funds, non-profits, foundations, innovation & development consultancies and governments.

At FOUNT, Jayanth advises the Good Fashion Fund on the India transactions and supported the fund's first transaction in Pratibha Syntex.

He has a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Oxford and a Bachelor of Business Administration with First Class Distinction from the University of Madras.