Freshco is a Kenyan company that sells high-yield hybrid seeds, especially maize seed, to small-scale farmers. Maize seed that is optimized for the climates of Kenya's various regions can produce up to six tons of grain per hectare, compared to only one ton with ordinary seed.
Launched in 2012, Root Capital's Women in Agriculture Initiative aims to enhance our lending products and financial advisory services to provide reliable economic opportunities for women, and to ultimately better understand how women help grow rural prosperity so that we can magnify our impact over time.
Root Capital extends finance to businesses under-served by commercial lenders in Africa and Latin America. To meet the particular needs of each borrower, we provide a variety of loan products as well as financial advisory services.
Root Capital’s lending is directed towards businesses that are too big for microfinance, but generally unable to secure credit from conventional commercial banks – “the missing middle” of developing-world finance.
COOPCAB, a Fair Trade coffee cooperative and Root Capital client, operates in one of Haiti's few remaining tracts of rainforest in a country where less than 1.5 percent of the land is forested.
Triunfo Verde is a coffee farmer cooperative that grows organic, specialty-grade coffee in one of the world’s most diverse forest reserves in Chiapas, Mexico and exports it to fair trade buyers in the U.S.
Founded 6 years ago by Augusto Fernandini, AgroMantaro is a Peruvian company that processes prime quality artichokes and jalapeños that are in high demand, for export by major food companies like General Mills, in the United States and Europe.
Raymisa is a Peruvian company that produces and exports sustainable textiles, furniture and home décor to global retailers like HomeGoods and Pier 1 Imports. During the late 1980's Raymisa's headquarters near Lima, became a refuge for displaced artisan families fleeing the cycle of violence between the Shining Path guerrillas and the Peruvian military.
Pangoa's members and managers are committed to both social and environmental sustainability. The organization provides training to its members and educational support for their children, including an on-site school and loans for higher education. Pangoa also finances programs to increase the incomes of its female members.
La Cooperativa Agraria de Pangoa is a farmer cooperative in the central Amazon region of Peru. During the late 1980's, Pangoa was an epicenter of violence between Maoist guerillas of the Shining Path and the Peruvian Government. "There was social violence that hit Pangoa Valley, we lived through those times. We had no shelter, we had to stay here, we banded together to resist terrorism," says Esperanza Dionisio, the longtime leader of Pangoa.
By maintaining long-term relationships with customers like General Mills and McCain, AgroMantaro provides a steady income to hundreds of small-scale farmers and job security for more than 600 employees at its processing plant -- 90 percent of whom are women holding their first formal job.