How AIV and GoodSAM are Driving Peru's Bioeconomy Growth
- Apr 3
- 2 min read
Thursday, 3rd April 2025
By Paula Perrelli dos Anjos
Amazonia Impact Ventures (AIV) has approved a new loan to GoodSAM, PBC, a company that purchases large quantities of Brazil Nuts collected by Indigenous Peoples in Madre de Dios, considered Peru’s richest region in terms of biodiversity.
In January, teams from both companies visited the Amazon to meet the Indigenous People who spend their days foraging deep in the forest to collect one of nature’s most nutritious nuts. Aldo Soto, Pajani Singah and Nelson Torres invited the Sustainability Manager at GoodSAM, Shafia Abdala, to visit the operations and get to know the harvesters.
The collectors are organised under a cooperative called AFIMAD - Asociación Forestal Indígena Madre de Dios, which has been a partner of AIV over the past years. AFIMAD represents 7 indigenous communities that harvest on 65,000 hectares of communally owned forests.
Access to High-Value Markets
Recently, AIV has witnessed firsthand the challenges that producer organisations face in accessing markets - often a significant bottleneck to their growth.
In 2022, two of our portfolio organisations were unable to export after their sole buyer underwent a management change and adopted stricter purchasing policies.
This experience highlighted the vulnerability of relying on single buyers, which is why AIV’s strategy now includes investing in ethical buyers to facilitate market access and build more resilient supply chains.
AIV’s impact-linked loan will provide working capital to GoodSAM to:
Scale its operations;
Increase its capacity to purchase more Brazil nuts;
Strengthen its commitment to a fully transparent, traceable supply chain;
Support local communities with technical assistance.
AIV's CFO, Lucy Singah, shared how she first met Heather K. Terry, CEO and Founder of GoodSAM Foods:
“Heather and I were lucky to meet at the Sorenson Impact summit last year. In our conversation, we realised our missions aligned, and that marked the beginning of this partnership.”
For Heather, the partnership with AIV represents a unique opportunity to align their capital-raising efforts with authentic impact metrics:
“At a time when global divisions are deepening, we are united in our commitment to reimagining capital as a force for good—creating innovative financial solutions that serve all stakeholders in a food system in urgent need of transformation, yet essential to us all.”
Funding Round
GoodSAM, PBC has recently completed a USD 9 million Series A funding round led by ALIVE Ventures, Desert Bloom Foods, with additional participation from LATAM Impact Fund (Sonen Capital LLC, Fondo de Fondos, MX), Promotora Social México (PSM), One Small Planet (PETERFFY FOUNDATION) and Connecticut Innovations.
Want to read about Brazil Nuts, check out the great article on https://www.amazoniaimpactventures.com/post/the-nut-superstar-brazilnut
Huge thanks to Greg Krupa, Shafia Naima Abdala Gallego, Marcia Bell, Joe Jessup, CFA, Majda Radovanovic. And thanks to the team at Vinson & Elkins, Bader Thabti and Tom Rhys Jones, for their legal support.
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