Philip Sieber Gasser

Obviam is an active manager which aims to provide risk adjusted returns and generate sustainable, long-term positive impact by investing in small and medium-sized enterprises via private equity funds and financial institutions. The firm seeks to invest in commercially viable companies in emerging and frontier markets. They believe that locally based private equity fund managers are optimally placed to invest in SMEs on their behalf because local fund managers possess knowledge of their markets, politics and economies. The fund managers with whom they have built long-term relationships over years of investing into their funds comprise a key part of their network. By investing in follow-on funds of these successful managers, Obviam benefits from supporting initial ventures. Obviam maintains relationships with local fund managers over the full investment period of investments, participating actively in the governance of investee funds via Limited Partner Advisory Boards, monitoring investee company progress including visits at investee companies and arranging ad-hoc meetings with fund managers to seek improvements when deemed necessary. They have developed a balanced portfolio diversified by country, region, sector, instruments (equity, mezzanine, debt, microfinance) and vintage. They seek to identify and mitigate the risks in emerging and frontier markets through on-site visits, interviews with fund managers, team quality, stability and abilities, financial performance and pipeline, potential value-add from strategic and operational active ownership, expected development impact, and approach to ESG matters.