BU Blended Finance Hackathon addresses risk sharing for private capital mobilisation
Last week we hosted the Berne Union Blended Finance Hackathon and what a fantastic, forward-looking day it was!
We came together as MDBs, DFIs, ECAs, commercial banks, private insurers and advisors and across four panels we explored:
🔹 Blended finance in large-scale projects - tackling policy frictions, institutional constraints, and improving collaboration and replicability.
BU President Yuichiro Akita (NEXI); Joon Young Park (IFC); Cecile Ambert (African Development Bank); Vira Tsymbalyuk (SERV); Faruq Muhammad (Standard Chartered); Christopher Marks (MUFG)
🔹 Adopting new technologies and tackling market maturity risks - defining optimal role-sharing for emerging sectors such as green hydrogen and other innovative technologies
Dolf Gielen (World Bank); Alexander Otten (Atradius DSB); Thomas Dickson (OakRe); Samuel Debaene (Deloitte)
🔹 Innovative structures and opportunities for small-scale projects to expand through MDBs/ECAs; examining practical examples to mobilise capital more effectively and build collaborative models.
Makiko Toyoda (IFC) Toke Philipsen Prahm (EIFO) Mark Norris (Sullivan Worcester)
🔹 Blended finance vehicles drawing lessons from case studies to understand how structured platforms can deliver scalable, replicable impact.
The discussions reinforced a clear message: mobilising private capital at scale requires not just financial innovation, but deeper institutional alignment, smarter risk allocation, and sustained collaboration.
Irene Visser (Atradius DSB); Andrew Johnstone (Climate Fund Managers); Catherine Tuckett (Liberty); Chris Clubb (Convergence)
🔹Reflections on bolstering the enabling environment
Tahir Ahmed (UKEF); David Milligan (Norton Rose Fulbright) John Lentaigne (Specialist Risk Group); Aly-Khan Jamal (BCG)
The Berne Union is committed to continuing the momentum and turning dialogue into practical solutions to accelerate blended finance deployment - Stay tuned for a summary publication coming soon in collaboration with Diana Smallridge and Momentus Global!
