News

Members IDB Invest and Overseas Private Investment Corporation signed a memorandum of understanding  pledging to invest a combined $3 billion in development projects in Latin America and the Caribbean over the next five years, with the option of increasing the investment to $5 billion. IDB Invest and OPIC aim to match this investment by catalyzing additional capital from the private sector, for a total ranging between $6 billion and $10 billion.

Member Mastercard and Rabobank announced a strategic partnership to give one million farmers in emerging markets access to a digital platform that makes it easier for them to sell their produce for a fair price. The platform builds on the current Mastercard Farmer Network and will be enriched by Rabobank’s expertise and reach in the food and agricultural sectors acr

Kabbage founders raise $11M for Drum, an SMB marketplace for sourcing salespeople, goods and services. Two serial entrepreneurs who have already built one big startup catering to SMBs — loans platform Kabbage — are launching another effort to help fill that gap. Drum, billed as a marketplace for businesses both to source sales people and sell their goods and services, not just for SMBs but any direct online brands seeking to market to SMBs or consumers, has raised $11 million in funding to launch its company and to — yes — drum up new business.

Washington, D.C., September 23rd, 2019 – Infini became the newest member of the SME Finance Forum, a global membership network that brings together financial institutions, technology companies, and development finance institutions to share knowledge, spur innovation, and promote the growth of SMEs. 

BFA is about to conclude our FIBR (Financial Inclusion on Business Runways) Project, an innovative R&D initiative which sought to demonstrate how smartphones can accelerate and deepen financial inclusion in developing countries. When we launched the FIBR Project in 2015, we outlined a set of assumptions about how increased connectivity and digitization would create “business runways for financial inclusion” for small businesses in Africa, helping to accelerate the ongoing process toward greater inclusion.

Buhle Goslar, the newly appointed CEO of JUMO, on how this South African fintech has to date raised over $100 million from investors and also managed to successfully expand into Asia. 
Read more here.

Article via iAfrikan.com

Washington, D.C., September 18, 2019 – Virtusa became the newest member of the SME Finance Forum, a global membership network that brings together financial institutions, technology companies, and development finance institutions to share knowledge, spur innovation, and promote the growth of SMEs. 

DBS Bank is to offer multi-tier financing on a logistics blockchain platform named Rong-E Lian, to help small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in China get faster access to trade financing. 

Article via Finextra.
 

Washington, D.C., September 16th, 2019 – Camko became the newest member of the SME Finance Forum, a global membership network that brings together financial institutions, technology companies, and development finance institutions to share knowledge, spur innovation, and promote the growth of SMEs. 

Washington, D.C., September 13th, 2019 – Equity Bank became the newest member of the SME Finance Forum, a global membership network that brings together financial institutions, technology companies, and development finance institutions to share knowledge, spur innovation, and promote the growth of SMEs.