Philanthropist Dr Shamil Chandaria is believed to have become the world’s largest individual social investor after he agreed to put £2.5m into the recently-launched CAF Social Impact Fund.

Chandaria, a former managing director at Deutsche Bank AG and founder of Amplitude Capital, made the payment through his CAF charitable trust, the Ad Astra Trust.

He is currently chair of Octave Capital, non-executive chairman of Omnifone and majority shareholder in Swedish communications company IP-Only.

CAF’s social investment arm Venturesome estimates that as the money will be given to organisations as loans and reinvested when repaid, Chandaria’s £2.5m will mean £4.8m can be lent to over 100 charities and social enterprises over three years.

After that point, Chandaria will receive his initial stake back as long as all the loans are repaid by recipients.

Chandaria said: “I want my charitable giving to be a catalyst for change which makes a real difference to charities and the people they help.

“CAF Venturesome has an impressive track record of helping charities to achieve their goals and by investing in the CAF Social Impact Fund I know that my money is making the best impact it can.”