see the attached report.  Impressive how this market is growing...but there's not enough talk about implications for the small farmers and other SMEs in the chains...too often the big buyer at the end insists on "zero cost" conditions (to paraphrase Walmart, and some others)...but significant investment is needed to meet the new requirements...it's not just about fair price to the farmer...and without appropriate financing, often longer term financing than 1 year, there's a risk this can all turn out very bad for small farmers and rural households. comments? matt

Long seen as a vehicle for funding independent films and other artistic ventures, crowdfunding is evolving into a potentially powerful resource for low-income people and the organizations that serve them.In the U.S., new business ventures have long had their access to capital constrained by regulations that limited equity sales to accredited investors (ie: those with a net worth of over $1 million and annual incomes over $200,000). This handicapped many potential entrepreneurs who lacked the strong business connections enjoyed by high-net worth individuals. 

At Root Capital, we originally developed social and environmental due diligence tools and methodologies as a way to put our mission into practice and to demonstrate our impact. Years of lending led us to the realization that social and environmental due diligence brings real financial benefits as well as costs. Our issue brief describes where we see the alignment of financial, social, and environmental interests as being strongest.Of course, Root Capital is far from the first financial institution to consider these topics. Indeed, our partners at Citibank have given these issues a lot of thought, and so we spent some time with Courtney Lowrance, Citi’s Director of Environmental and Social Risk Management, to understand their perspective and whether lessons learned from financing weather-worn farmers are relevant on Wall Street.

a lot, it turns out.  Went to a very interesting session at IFC today where the authors of the attached report presented their findings.  Worth looking at, particularly to see in case studies how the presence of SME and consumer finance is a key factor in enabling the scale up of promising new technologies/business models.the publication is available for free from the link provided.matt

The SME Finance ICF is an initiative of the Financial Sector Deepening Trust (FSDT) which was established in 2004 to promote a growing financial sector in Tanzania, particularly as regards expanding the envelope of people and businesses able to access financial services.
Mr Kewe said the competition that would be closed on 28th February this year is aimed at financial service providers (bank and non-banks) to test and develop innovative business models that will deliver new products and better services to underserved SME clients.

A new survey of 1,800 banks conducted by the Initiative for Smallholder Finance reveals that the total amount of debt financing supplied by local banks to smallholder farmers in the developing world is approximately $9 billion. This is a small figure compared with the total demand for smallholder financing, which is $300 billion excluding China and $450 billion globally.The gap is huge. Only 16 percent of surveyed banks provide smallholder farmer financing. Where formal financing is available, 80 percent of the existing supply comes from public institutions—state and agricultural development banks that were originally established by local governments and later fully or partially privatized.

When I was in Nigeria this November, I learned how Diamond Bank used consumer insights to design a new savings product that so far is proving to be popular with its female clients for the right reasons: it mirrors the convenience of informal financial services combined with the security of formal saving. Diamond Bank, a leading full-service bank in Nigeria that operates nationwide, only six months into this process, already managed to increase its women clientele from 32 to 41% .

Looking to put your life savings into an unproven start-up, and hopefully cash out when it hits big?Rules under consideration by the Securities and Exchange Commission would allow start-ups to "crowdfund" their businesses, raising capital from people who have traditionally been barred from making such risky investments.But while the crowdfunding phenomenon (essentially raising small amounts of money from a large pool of investors) has worked for companies like Kickstarter and Indiegogo—which fund specific projects like films and music, trying to fund start-ups this way could prove disastrous for many people, experts say.

The International Finance Corporation (IFC) has signed an agreement with the Grooming Centre to support micro and small businesses in the country with a total of N650 million.
Specifically, the fund is aimed at increasing access to finance for up to 780,000 micro-enterprises by 2018. The project is also expected to improve financial inclusion, promote job creation and growth in Nigeria.

Crowdfunding websites have caught the imagination of millions of web users, providing businesses and creative ventures with a platform to appeal for money. But some start-ups have found the crowdfunding experience much tougher than they expected