ESJ Partners is a non-profit investment fund. We make venture capital investments in small businesses in the developing world that contribute to environmental sustainability, bio-diversity, and social justice.

We typically make equity investments that are structured to pay a regular dividend, and where the shares we own are incrementally repurchased by the portfolio company at or above the investment price, so that the portfolio company becomes wholly employee-owned over time. All returns fund investments in new portfolio companies.

ESJ Partners is not a lender, we are an investor. We design our equity investments with some debt-like qualities, but feel strongly that equity financing, not debt is the most useful way to help environmentally and socially innovative ventures get off the ground in the developing world - Micro-Equity, not Micro-Debt.

Our typical investment size is in the $10,000 to $50,000 range. We feel that this is an important niche. The kinds of businesses that we invest in are not well served by either micro-credit consumer finance programs lending $50 or $500, or by existing domestic banking infrastructure.