AgRIF Coöperatief U.A.

Subsidy : September 2018 - August 2023

BIO has given € 105 K of Technical Assistance to the AgRIF Coöperatief U.A., the Agriculture and Rural Impulse Fund, a multiregional debt and equity microfinance investment fund.

Amount

€ 105,000.00

Type of investment

Subsidy

Beneficiary locations

Africa: Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Kenya, Senegal

Asia: Cambodia, India, Mongolia, Myanmar

Latin America and Caribbean: Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Peru

Investment field

Investment Companies & Funds

Activity

KK.64.302 FI Fund

Organisation

AgRIF Coöperatief U.A.

Website

http://www.incofin.com/

Domicile

Netherlands

More investments in

AgRIF Coöperatief U.A.

Equity € 5,438,332.50 (2015)

AgRIF (Agricultural and Rural Impulse Fund) is a multiregional debt and equity microfinance investment fund with a specific focus on agricultural and rural outreach. It will be managed by Incofin Investment Management, a Belgian-based microfinance investment company.

The fund will focus on enhancing financial inclusion of the rural population by investing in targeted MFI’s or banks in emerging countries. It will also specifically aim at improving financial inclusion of smallholder farmers, by targeting MFIs and financial institutions that have developed specific agriculture linked loan products and by dedicating a limited part of its strategy towards financing producer organisations and agriculture-focused companies.

Technical Assistance

AgRIF’s Technical Assistance Facility (AgTAF) aims to develop the capacities of the investees and potential investees which can be financial intermediaries, producer organisations and SMEs involved in the agricultural value chain. The specific objective of AgTAF is to increase the outreach and improve the capacity (operational, financial and social) of Partner Institutions in order to support them in providing adequate and sustainable financial models and services targeting the needs of smallholder farmers and rural entrepreneurs.

Impact

Six areas of intervention are foreseen to boost financial, operational and social performance of key service providers and share best practices:

Product development and support to greenfield interventions
Promoting innovative delivery channels
Enhancing risk management and risk mitigation measures with a specific focus on agro-finance
Enhancing the financial and strategic performance of Producer Organisations (POs), Agricultural Value Chain (AVC) SMEs and other AVC actors
Enhancing social and environmental performance and good governance
Fostering knowledge sharing

It is expected that (1) product development and (2) promoting innovative delivery channels will be the two most important components and are expected to absorb 50% of the total budget.

Made possible through this investment

Thanks to the direct funding from BIO, the following second-line investments have been made possible.

Banco Popular

Honduras

Banco Popular is a regulated microfinance bank based in Honduras

Fairassets Technologies India Pvt Ltd

India

India’s first regulated NBFC-P2P marketplace, Fairassets provides a robust lending platform to its Indian borrowers and lenders.

Financiera Fundeser

Nicaragua

Financiera Fundeser is a regulated financial institution (NBFI) operating in Nicaragua with 75% of its portfolio located in rural areas and 60% allocated to agriculture and cattle breeding. Financiera Fundeser is the spin-off of Fundación Fundeser and was launched by the NGO and 3 international institutional investors.

Huimin Microfinance

MFI active in a poor rural province of China with a strong focus on women.

KWMB

Kenya

Light Microfinance Pvt Ltd

India

Light is a microfinance institution that provides micro-credit services to under‐privileged women in rural geographies via Joint Liability Group (JLG) Grameen model. It has branches across Gujarat, Rajasthan, and Madhya Pradesh.

Light is focused towards its micro‐credit business and follows the Joint Liability Group (JLG) model for risk mitigation.

MFI Africa

Microfinance institutions active in Africa

MFI Asia

Microfinance institutions active in Asia & CEE

MFI LAC

Microfinance institutions active in LAC

MFX

MFX is a socially-oriented company that supports impact investing with affordable hedging products and risk management education.

Progresemos

Progresemos provides co-financing to strategic partner institutions (small MFIs) that serve micro and small entrepreneurs as well as direct financing through its own branches, reaching out to some of Mexico’s most underserved and rural regions. Progresemos also provides financing via payroll loan intermediaries.

Rent2Own

Myanmar

Rent2Own is the first company in Myanmar offering a flexible rental service to help prospective buyers acquire a motorcycle.

Save Solutions Pvt Ltd

India

SAVE is one of the Top 3 Banking Business Correspondent in India. The company reaches out to 18 million unbanked clients providing comprehensive banking transaction services through a network of over 8,500 Kiosks spread across 350 districts & 30 States in India with a dedicated focus on the rural areas.

SAVE has two fully-owned subsidiaries predominantly for the rural lending business. One of the subsidiary finance companies focusses on funding rural entrepreneurs and micro small and medium enterprises. The second subsidiary finance company provides microfinance loans to rural women in tier 2/3 locations.

Sohan Lal Commodity Management Pvt Ltd

India, Myanmar

Established in 2004, Sohan Lal Commodity Management (popularly known as SLCM group) is a post‐harvest agri‐logistics company that offers a diversified range of products & services to the target segment‐ farmers, processors, millers, traders, etc., and provides a one‐stop solution from warehouse management to agri‐financing and collateral management. SLCM group has operations in India and Myanmar, and has four subsidiaries that specialize in businesses across agri‐value chain namely procurement, commodity warehousing, agrifinance & collateral management.