A fund designed to close natural catastrophe protection gaps through disaster resilience investments in emerging markets has raised an initial $US340 million ($523 million).

The sum includes commitments from the International Finance Corporation and Insurance Development Forum members who put together the fund blueprint over the past two years.

The Infrastructure Resilience Development Fund has authorised its first investment, has other potential projects in the pipeline and expects to continue raising capital from insurers and other institutional investors into next year.

“This successful first close in a challenging global environment is a confirmation of our commitment to drive greater mobilisation and more impactful insurance sector investment into a critical, underserved segment of the infrastructure market,” Insurance Development Forum secretary-general Ekhosuehi Iyahen said.

The forum, involving insurance leaders, government officials and international organisations, was announced at the UN’s Paris climate summit in 2015 and launched the next year.

The resilience fund is managed by BlackRock’s Global Infrastructure Partners, which collaborated on a blueprint from forum members including Axa, Convex, Generali, Scor, Swiss Re and Zurich.

Forum infrastructure working group co-chair and Axa chief investment officer Jean-Baptiste Tricot says it is an important step in unlocking infrastructure project funding in emerging markets with an attractive risk-return profile.

The debt fund, tailored to the needs of institutional insurers and pension funds, will invest in small to medium commercial infrastructure project and target a diversified portfolio.