Oikocredit, a cooperative based in the Netherlands, recently funded a 4-year loan of EUR 9.6 million (USD 13.1 million) in favor of Guatemalan microfinance institution (MFI) Fundación Génesis Empresarial. Génesis CFO Jim López said that the loan will allow the MFI “to support more rural Guatemalans in advancing their development path and improving their quality of life” and
Category: Deals
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: AVPA, Investorflow.org, Forge Partnership to Develop Impact Investments in Africa, Resulting in Expanding Membership Base, Increasing Capital Flow in Africa, and Rising Overall Investor Collaboration
African Venture Philanthropy Alliance (AVPA), a Kenya-based “Pan-African network for social investors,” and Investorflow.org, a US-based platform that helps impact investors find co-investors, recently announced a partnership. Dr Frank Aswani, the CEO of AVPA, stated that the tie-up “will allow AVPA to add another 500-plus
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Grameen Credit Agricole Foundation Lends Local Currency Worth $1.5m to Yehu of Kenya, ASA Microfinance Rwanda
The Grameen Credit Agricole (GCA) Foundation, whose head office is in Luxembourg, has announced the disbursal of the following local-currency loans: to Kenya’s Yehu the approximate equivalent of USD 888,000 and to
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Khan Bank of Mongolia Borrowing $120m from FMO, Atlantic Forfaitierungs, DEG, IIB, PROPARCO – Part for MSME Loans, Green Capacity
Khan Bank, which serves individuals and companies of all sizes in Mongolia, recently agreed to accept a borrowing package of USD 120 million arranged by Nederlandse Financierings-Maatschappij voor Ontwikkelingslanden (FMO), a Dutch public-private partnership. FMO is funding
SPECIAL REPORT: SAM (the French Acronym for African Microfinance Week) in Progress in Rwanda Until October 22, 2021
Get an overview of the five-day SAM from the ADA press release or follow the proceedings on our Twitter feed!
This feature is part of a sponsored series on the SAM 2021, which is organized by the Luxembourgish NGO ADA, the Microfinance African Institutions Network (MAIN), the African Rural and Agricultural Credit Association (AFRACA) and the Association of Microfinance Institutions in Rwanda (AMIR), with the support of the Directorate for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Affairs of Luxembourg and the Government of Rwanda. The event is taking place from October 18 to October 22 in Kigali, Rwanda. MicroCapital has been engaged to promote and document each of the SAMs since 2015.
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Creation Investments Leads $30m Debt, Equity Funding Round for ReshaMandi, B2B App for Silk Farms, Manufacturers, Retailers in India
ReshaMandi, business-to-business (B2B) marketplace app serving 35,000 farms, manufacturing businesses and retailers active in the silk industry, recently raised USD 30 million in debt and equity. Creation Investments, a US-based alternative investment manager,
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Microinvest of Moldova, FINCA Armenia Borrowing $10m from Invest in Visions for Microfinance
Agents for Impact (AFI), a Germany-based impact investing company, recently informed MicroCapital that it is issuing the following loans on behalf of Germany’s Invest in Visions (IIV): EUR 7 million (USD 8 million) in two tranches to Microinvest of Moldova and USD 2.5 million to FINCA Armenia, a unit of US-based FINCA Impact Finance. AFI has disbursed the entire loan to
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: African Guarantee Fund to Back Additional $25m in Lending by Oikocredit to Microfinance Institutions; Small, Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs); Women-led Businesses – Including in Agriculture, Renewable Energy Sectors
Oikocredit, a cooperative investor based in the Netherlands, recently signed an agreement valued at USD 25 million with the African Guarantee Fund for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (AGF). The deal increases the parties’ 10-year loan guarantee volume to USD 43 million, allowing Oikocredit to increase its
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: DFC Announces $150m Loan to Produbanco of Ecuador to Support Women’s Enterprise, SME Lending, Green Projects
Banco de la Producción SA (Produbanco), a bank in Ecuador, recently agreed to borrow USD 150 million from the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), a government-backed development finance institution. One half of the funding is for on-lending to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to support
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Kestra Financial, TriLinc Global Collaborate to Expand Retail Access to Impact Investments
Two US-based firms, Kestra Financial and TriLinc Global, recently agreed to collaborate to give Kestra’s 1,800 registered representatives access to TriLinc’s impact funds, which have a total volume of USD 1.2 billion. TriLinc’s funds, which target low- and middle-income countries, seek
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: SuperZop, Agri-commerce Platform in India, Nets $4m in Equity from Incofin, 1st-time Investor in Agricultural Technology
Incofin Investment Management, a Belgium-based investor in financial inclusion and agriculture in developing countries, recently agreed to invest USD 4 million from its India Progress Fund (IPF) in SuperZop, whose app helps “small retailers and restaurants buy staples directly from farmers and food processors.” Among the app’s functions is to use artificial intelligence to analyze the quality of grains
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Agents for Impact Loans $14m from IIV to Kinara Capital of India, BRAC Tanzania for Microfinance, SMEs
Agents for Impact (AFI), a Germany-based impact investing company, recently informed MicroCapital that it has issued the following loans on behalf of Germany’s Invest in Visions (IIV): EUR 8 million (USD 9.2 million) to India’s Kinara Capital and USD 5 million to BRAC Tanzania Finance Limited. AFI aims to bring together investors to make progress toward the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Kinara issues collateral-free loans to micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises. The loans, which range in size from INR 100,000 (USD 1,300) to INR 3 million (USD 40,000), are intended for purposes such as working capital and asset purchases. Although the firm promises “digital first”
SPECIAL REPORT: SIDI Credits the SAM Investors’ Fair with Seeding Partnerships with Emerging MFIs in Burundi, Ethiopia, Mozambique
During the SAM (Semaine Africaine de la Microfinance – African Microfinance Week in French) in October, the 2021 Investors’ Fair will build on the 2019 Investors’ Fair, during which 120 microfinance institutions (MFIs) and 24 investors met in over 500 “speed-dating” sessions to explore whether they might be compatible partners. Of the MFIs, which represented 24 countries, about half were for-profit firms, and about half were organized as cooperatives or NGOs.
At the 2019 event, Altemius Millinga, the Managing Director of Tanzania’s Yetu Microfinance Bank, told MicroCapital that the Investors’ Fair “was the best part of the SAM because I was able to interact with investors, while at the same time sharing experiences immediately with other MFIs. The SAM gave me the opportunity to meet investors and make several preliminary proposals on funding; it was surely worth the investment!”
FEFISOL, an Africa-focused fund launched by SIDI, has had a presence at all four of the SAM Investors’ Fairs to date, and its representatives will return this year. The CEO of SIDI, Dominique Lesaffre, reports that his institution has leveraged the Investors’ Fair not only to develop relationships with “successful institutions such as Centenary Bank in Uganda or Kafo Jiguinew in Mali – with their massive social-financial outreach – but also with emerging MFIs such as Microbanco Confiança of Mozambique, Ishaka of Burundi and Buusaa Gonofaa of Ethiopia.”
Edmund Higenbottam, the Managing Director of Verdant Capital, also
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Financiera Desyfin of Costa Rica Borrowing $22m from FMO, Partly for Green Lending
Financiera Desyfin, a non-bank financial institution (NBFI) that provides “credit, factoring, and leasing products” in Costa Rica, recently agreed to borrow USD 22.5 million from Nederlandse Financierings-Maatschappij voor Ontwikkelingslanden (FMO), a Dutch public-private partnership. A portion of the funds is for “green” projects, such as increasing “energy efficiency, recycling and
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Bank of Abyssinia to Loan $13m to 4 Microfinance Institutions in Ethiopia for Lending to MSMEs Based on Movable Collateral
Bank of Abyssinia (BOA), a financial services provider in Ethiopia, recently agreed to loan ETB 600 billion (USD 13 million) to four Ethiopian microfinance institutions (MFIs) to increase financial access for micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) by harnessing moveable collateral such as
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Tagit Developing Mobile App for Advans Microfinance Institutions in Africa, Asia
Advans Group, a Luxembourg-based microfinance organization with operations in nine low- and middle-income countries, recently partnered with Tagit, a Singapore-based mobile technology company, to develop a mobile banking application for Advans customers. The app will be based on
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Grameen Credit Agricole Foundation Lends $4.6m to Agency for Finance in Kosovo (AFK), Microinvest of Moldova, Monte Credit of Montenegro
The Grameen Credit Agricole (GCA) Foundation, whose head office is in Luxembourg, has informed MicroCapital that it is disbursing loans to: (1) Agency for Finance in Kosovo (AFK) in the amount of EUR 1.5 million (USD 1.8 million); (2) Moldova-based Microinvest in local currency approximately
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: In India, MFIs, State Government Agree on Assam Microfinance Relief, Incentive Scheme for Women Borrowers Struggling with COVID-19 Impacts
The government of the Indian state of Assam recently announced it has reached an agreement with 38 microfinance institutions (MFIs), many of which are members of the self-regulating Microfinance Institutions Network (MFIN), to launch the Assam Microfinance Incentive and Relief Scheme (AMFIRS). For those who have been late repaying their microloans, the “relief under the scheme shall be extended to…