Ask Ag About... Access to Finance for Small and Growing Businesses

Photo: Srinivasulu Rajendran, AVRDC. Market in Tanzania selling tomatoes.

Event Information

Having access to finance is crucial for facilitating expansion and scale of small and growing businesses (SGBs). SGBs are commercially viable businesses with significant potential for growth that seek growth capital from $20,000 to $2 million. However, accessing growth capital in this range is a major challenge, particularly in emerging markets. 

Join our upcoming Ask Ag online chat where financing institution experts and field practitioners will delve into the complexities of access to finance, as well as examine key factors for success, best practices and lessons learned.

For one hour, experts will answer your questions and discuss best practices, common challenges and lessons learned in their own development work involving access to finance. It all takes place right here in our Comments section! 

If you arrive early, post a question for our experts right now in the Comments section below, and/or return to this page on October 27th from 12-1 p.m. EDT to engage in the live discussion. 

1. What are the critical components of accelerating investment-readiness for small and growing businesses? What are key factors for success in this process?

2. From an entrepreneur’s perspective, what are the pros/cons of debt vs. equity financing? What does the pursuit of external financing look like for an entrepreneur?

3. How do financial institutions determine investability? What are the most common factors that make or break a loan/equity investment?

Speakers

Martin Slawek

Initiative for Smallholder Finance

Based in New York, Martin Slawek works on the Investments team for the Initiative for Smallholder Finance (ISF). Martin is responsible for research and complex financial, market and policy analysis, along with investment pipeline generation. He has extensively worked with agriculture companies, agriculture startups, banks, governments, foundations and impact investors. Previously, Martin was an Investment Banker covering structured finance at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Giselle Aris

Land O'Lakes International Development

Giselle Aris is Practice Area Manager for Inclusive Finance and Enterprise Development at Land O'Lakes International Development. She provides technical leadership in the design and execution of projects across Africa and Asia, with a particular focus on leveraging philanthropic capital to crowd in private investment for social impact; accelerating the investment-readiness of small and medium-sized businesses in emerging markets; and financial modeling for the social sector. Giselle is currently completing her MBA at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania and is an Investment Associate at Wharton Impact Investing Partners. Prior to joining Land O’Lakes Giselle worked in India’s dairy sector for two years, where she led the design and profitable scaling of a farmer-owned dairy business. She has also worked with the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Women’s Campaign International and the U.S. Department of State Africa Bureau. Giselle holds a master’s degree in International Development from the University of Oxford, where she was a Thouron Scholar, and a summa cum laude bachelor’s degree in African Studies from the University of Pennsylvania.

Titianne Donde

Feed the Future Kenya Innovation Engine

Titianne Donde has extensive knowledge in developing and implementing sustainable inclusive growth models, value chain analysis, mapping and finance, agriculture and rural product development, institutional strengthening and sectorial policy reform. A former banker with over seven years' experience in the industry, Titianne is currently Chief-of-Party for the flagship Feed the Future Kenya Innovation Engine, funded by USAID. Here she has overseen the growth of the project to support small and medium enterprises develop and pilot innovative solutions for food security and improved livelihoods. With almost five years’ prior development sector experience gained in various roles at DAI Development Alternatives Inc., Titianne helped facilitate micro-enterprise access to finance and develop products and agricultural lending policies and financial strategies for over 100 institutions through USAID's Financial Inclusion for Rural Microenterprises (FIRM) project, during her tenure as Technical Team Leader. She previously managed the project’s financial sector policy and regulation reform pillar to capitalize on opportunities that benefit marginalized and excluded populations across the Kenyan society, including women and youth. Titianne holds a Bachelor of Business Administration and an MSc in Entrepreneurship.

Jason Wendle

Rural and Agricultural Finance Learning Lab

Jason Wendle is the Director of the Learning Lab, tasked with guiding the Lab to produce actionable and collaborative learning that leads to real impact for clients. He helped design the Learning Lab as an Associate Partner in the Nairobi office of Dalberg, where he spent 7 years providing strategy advice to clients in agriculture development, access to finance and other sectors, prior to transitioning to GDI in Washington, DC to direct the Lab. During his time at Dalberg, Jason provided leadership to Dalberg's evaluation and learning work on the continent. He led teams to develop learning frameworks, design data collection approaches and evaluate investments; always with the aim to translate learnings into actionable recommendations to increase impact going forward. Jason holds an MPA/ID from Harvard's Kennedy School. He has published and presented on smallholder finance, SME banking and impact measurement.

Scott Overdyke

Root Capital

Scott is a senior project manager focused on strategic initiatives at the cross-section of Root Capital’s lending, advisory and field building activities. These include mobile technology advisory for Root borrowers, as well as fund design and management for mission-aligned investors. Prior to joining Root Capital in 2014, Scott was a consultant with FSG where he helped companies design shared value strategies to drive financial, social and environmental returns. He has also worked with the Peace Corps, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, TechnoServe and the social enterprise Razoo.com. Scott is a graduate of Columbia Business School and Harvard Kennedy School and currently lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

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