ThirdWay Partners

ThirdWay Partners, an investment and advisory firm is through it’s mission ‘Committed to the vision of businesses, communities and ecosystems thriving together.’ The firm pursues this goal by breaking away from the return-only perspective and a paradigm shift in how and why to do business - The Third Way. The approach acknowledges that the pursuit of profitability should be tied and empowered by a focus on impact agendas that can link economic returns to the well-being of communities and the environment sustainably.

ThirdWay Partners fosters impact across various societal, environmental and thematic dimensions through its investments, advisory services and collaborative initiatives. It promotes a collaborative model among various businesses and stakeholders to leverage their capabilities in creating a positive impact and shared value towards sustainability. This ThirdWay approach encourages businesses to pursue their goals while contributing to impact objectives, aligning with the global need for sustainable business practices.

“We champion the third way of thinking, a philosophy that places collaboration and impact above traditional business competition,” says Andre Neves-Correia, partner and COO at ThirdWay Partners. This approach becomes indispensable when navigating the complex and often ambiguous landscape of impact within finance. By prioritising collaboration, the company creates synergies that amplify the positive outcomes of its sustainability initiatives.

ThirdWay Partners categorises these projects it initiates into key practice areas—energy transition, sustainable food production and natural capital. This thematic approach helps clients execute projects with an impact-first lens by adapting its approaches to the evolving political and regulatory environments.

The firm gains a comprehensive understanding of the interconnected challenges by aligning its expertise with global impact discussions. For instance, while focusing on sustainable food production, the company addresses immediate concerns affecting the region of focus, and the communities within, as well as considers the broader implications for global food security and environmental sustainability. These global implications are often critical at understanding the capacity and willingness that stakeholders will have to participate in collaborative projects or investments within regions.

When supporting the private sector, ThirdWay Partners employs a systematic approach to advising clients how to engage with the Third Way of Thinking, This entails, firstly, identifying challenges and opportunities the business faces, and connecting each to their relevant impact agendas. These could entail a multitude of examples, such as access to resources such as clean water, or improving worker performance through adequate training and medical support. As a second step, once challenges and opportunities have been aligned to their impact agendas, ThirdWay helps the client define their roles within these agendas. Finally, ThirdWay Partners facilities collaborations between their client and other entities that are focused on those impact agenda and capable of fulfilling roles not addressed by client, ensuring effective and complimentary contributions to the impact agenda from all stakeholders.

At the heart of the ThirdWay Thinking approach is the fact that the pursuit of positive impact is non-competitive, and as such collaborations can foster mutually beneficial outcome for the involved parties whilst advancing the impact agenda more broadly, both for local communities and the environment.

Furthermore, the firm extends its support to clients in the development space, such as NGOs and Development Agencies, whose the focus is already prioritising social impact objectives, rather than commercial returns. For this type of engagement, ThirdWay facilitates the same collaborative framework but with a view to introduce a commercial element to the development initiatives through support from private sector stakeholders. This approach ensures that projects have an element of commercial return, enhancing their viability and longevity beyond the period of support from the development client.

The ThirdWay Partners team is composed of two units, the investment and advisory teams, both guided by the “thirdway of thinking” ethos. The investment team oversees assets, focusing on debt and equity from a long-term private equity perspective. Concurrently, the advisory team draws on high-level financial consulting expertise to seamlessly integrate thematic impact specialisation into strategic decision-making to provide clients with comprehensive solutions.

An example that showcases ThirdWay Partners’ service excellence is its collaboration with an organisation in North and West Africa, specifically in the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector. The partnership resulted in the development and implementation of a robust ESG strategy, culminating in pilot initiatives like a recycling project designed to engage and uplift local communities. This collaborative effort has enhanced local communities’ active participation in beneficial activities, demonstrating businesses’ potential to contribute to societal and environmental goals.

Similarly, one of ThirdWay Partners’ impactful initiatives is the management of the Africa Communities and Conservation Tourism Fund (ACCT), a blended finance vehicle that supports safari operators in African countries. The fund was initiated as a response to the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, ensuring support to an industry that is crucial in advancing the respective country’s conservation agenda. By protecting and investing in the generation of economic benefits for local communities through wildlife conservation, the ACCT Fund exemplifies the firm’s commitment to significant investments with lasting effects.

ThirdWay Partners embraces diversity and global outreach with a team comprising 16 nationalities and a strong global presence. The firm’s evolution from ThirdWay Africa, a company that exclusively focused on Africa’s financial landscape, to ThirdWay Partners demonstrates its active participation in international markets and the global scope of impact agendas. This transition makes the firm a flexible partner, transcending geographical confines to make a global impact. The team’s diversity ensures fresh perspectives, contributing to a holistic understanding of global impact discussions, current geo-political factors and the project and investment opportunities available to empower the key impact themes challenging communities worldwide.