Root Capital

12 Aug

MLC VANGUARD | Created by Root Capital

Root Capital is a nonprofit with a mission to grow rural prosperity and build the resilience of farming families around the world. We provide credit and capacity building to agricultural enterprises so they can unlock their potential and transform rural communities.

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10,000,000 Lives Impacted

We go where others don’t, providing credit and capacity building to businesses in some of the world’s most economically and environmentally vulnerable places. In 2022, 93% of Root Capital loans filled financing needs that would not have been met by commercial lenders.

We go through intensive social and environmental due diligence to ensure our clients aren’t just minimizing harm, but are actively improving the lives of the farmers with whom they work. Since the start of our Climate Resilience Roadmap work in 2020, we’ve grown our portfolio of climate action leaders by 80%, from 63 businesses in 2019 to 114 in 2022. Climate action leaders now represent 56% of our global lending portfolio. In 2022 alone, we disbursed $98.8 million to help climate action leaders sustain investments in projects such as reforestation, regenerative agroforestry farms, or climate-ready crops like sorghum.

Since 1999, we have lent $1.85 billion to over 768 agricultural enterprises reaching 2.4 million farmers and employees and provided training to more than 1,812 enterprises.

The Innovation

Root Capital supports small and growing agricultural enterprises that purchase crops such as coffee, cocoa, or grains from smallholder farmers. Root Capital seeks out enterprises whose credit needs are too big for microfinance and too small or risky for commercial banks, and provides them with loans tailored to harvest cycles. To help businesses grow over the long-term, we mix that financing with customized training to strengthen their financial management, governance, information management, and agronomic capacities.

In 2022, 93% of our loans fulfilled financing needs unmet by commercial lenders. These loans are closing the gap for agricultural businesses and unlocking their transformative growth. In return, they become engines of impact: raising incomes, creating jobs for the next generation of leaders, leveling the playing field for women, and taking urgent action against climate change.

About Root Capital

Root Capital invests in the growth of agricultural enterprises so they can transform rural communities. These businesses purchase crops such as coffee, cocoa, or grains from smallholder farmers. With growth, they become engines of impact that can raise incomes, create jobs, empower women and young people, and preserve vulnerable ecosystems. We supply these businesses with vital resources: access to capital, trade and technical partners, financial training and conservation practices. We work in hard-to-serve geographies where others don’t. To date, we’ve distributed US$1.85 billion to improve the lives of ten million people in farming communities.