$141 million in commitments from an array of institutional investors. Accion is the fund's sponsor and anchor investor; the fund's manager, Quona Capital, is an early growth-stage venture firm focused on financial technology for underserved consumers and businesses in emerging markets. Investments include NeoGrowth, Yoco, Konfio, and First Circle. 2000s In October 2000, Accion began working in partnership with microlending organizations in sub-Saharan Africa, marking its first initiative outside the Americas. Recognizing the need for microcredit throughout Africa, Accion worked to increase financial inclusion for poor, self-employed Africans throughout the continent. In 2006, Accion launched a partnership with Ecobank, the leading regional bank in West Africa. Pan-African Savings and Loans (then called EB-Accion Savings and Loans) launched operations in Ghana in 2007 and is expanding to neighboring countries. In 2005, Accion started on a new venture to reach another underserved group: urban small business owners in India. Since establishing an office in the country, Accion has partnered with local financial institutions in Patna and Mumbai, assisting them in applying individual and group lending and tailored credit scoring, among other microfinance methodologies. In 2007, Compartamos Banco, a Mexican microfinance institution and Accion investee, became the first Latin American MFI to offer equity through an initial public offering (IPO). The IPO sparked an industry-wide debate, with some "questioning the ethics of profit[ing] from the poor," and others arguing that "the profit motive can help lift many more people out of poverty than charity alone could ever do." Álvaro Rodríguez Arregui, chairman of Accion at the time, was among the latter, and argued that the IPO was needed to attract much more capital to the microfinance industry, and Accion used the funds to advance its mission. Today, Compartamos stands out as one of the largest MFIs, in terms of number of clients, in Latin America. The proceeds from the IPO allowed Accion to create new MFIs in Brazil, Cameroon, China, Ghana and India, and strengthen, through investment or reinvestment, other partners in India, Africa, and Latin America. Accion also used the proceeds to establish and fund its Washington, D.C.-based think tank, the Center for Financial Inclusion (CFI) at Accion. CFI's work is grouped into three broad categories: Client Advocacy Examples of CFI's industry-wide initiatives include, the Smart Campaign – the world's first global consumer protection campaign, – and Financial Inclusion 2020 – a movement that mobilized stakeholders around the globe to achieve full