AQUA BLUE INVESTMENTS
An award winning company that focuses on impact investment opportunities to accelerate development across the globe. With over 20 years of experience, Aqua Blue Investments is the leading innovator in debt-for-impact swaps.
WHO WE ARE
Aqua Blue Investments recognizes that traditional philanthropic funding alone is not enough to address systemic conservation finance challenges at this scale. It is for that reason that Aqua Blue Investments was established with the mission of engaging private capital to rapidly scale critical conservation work around the world by creating investment opportunities in the ocean that deliver environmental results and financial returns to investors.
Over the past twenty-two years, the Aqua Blue Investments team has been involved, both directly and indirectly, in 16 debt conversions. These efforts have led to the repurchase of approximately US$3.3 billion in debt face value, generating US$1.3 billion in new funding for conservation and endowments. The team has played a key role in pioneering innovative debt swap structures, enabling larger-scale transactions. One of our proudest achievements is the Ecuador/Galapagos deal, which resulted in US$1.1 billion in debt relief for the country, including US$450 million dedicated to marine conservation. This is the largest debt-for-nature swap done to date.​
Founded by Robert Weary in 2020, Aqua Blue Investments was hired by the Pew Bertarelli Ocean Legacy Program to structure and arrange the financing for the Ecuador/Galapagos debt conversion. This US$1.6 billion debt purchase set a new precedent, unlocking US$450 million in funding for marine conservation and securing a sustainable endowment.
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The team behind Aqua Blue completed its first debt swap in Belize in 2001 under the US Tropical Forest Conservation Act (TFCA). Over the next decade, the team successfully concluded an additional ten TFCA debt swaps across Latin America, the Caribbean, and Asia Pacific, purchasing approximately US$190 million in debt. These swaps generated US$240 million for forest conservation initiatives.
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In 2016, the team structured and executed the Seychelles debt conversion, marking the first-ever debt-for-debt transaction focused on marine conservation. It was also the first to include conservation commitments, such as expanding marine protected areas. While the face value of the debt was relatively modest at US$22 million, the deal created lasting funding for marine conservation and established a dedicated endowment for continued efforts.
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“I can see doing a billion dollars of these deals in a decade”, Robert ccommented in an interview with the Economist in 2017. Just six years later, ABI managed to break the mould and close the largest debt-for-nature swap to date, fulfilling his vision for scaling debt swaps which dates all the way back to 2013.
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LEARN MORE:
Robert Weary & Susana Cardenas will be discussing the mechanism behind the Galapagos Life Fund and the projects its funding at the Universidad San Francisco de Quito on February 24th, 2025.
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