Root Ventures
Communities most exposed to climate change receive the least financing to respond to it. Root Ventures aims to change that.
To accelerate climate finance for smallholder agriculture, Root Capital is launching “Root Ventures,” a facility that will design, test, and scale promising climate finance models for smallholder agriculture. We will take our 25+ years history as a blended finance pioneer and debt specialist to create new debt models most needed by local businesses seeking to grow their impact.
The Challenge
Smallholder communities on the frontlines of the climate crisis face a massive climate finance gap.
To combat the climate crisis, we collectively need to ramp up and sustain massive adoption of regenerative agricultural practices—especially indigenous practices like agroforestry—that build ecosystem health and resilience to climate shocks while reducing carbon emissions.
Farmers need financing to build a regenerative, resilient future. Yet small-scale agriculture receives <1% of annual climate finance flows – leaving an estimated $150B climate finance gap for communities on the frontlines of the climate crisis.
To date, farmers face multiple barriers to climate action, including:
Lack of financial institutions serving smallholder communities.
The climate finance gap is symptomatic of a larger, $200B financing gap for small-scale agriculture. To quickly deploy climate finance, look to actors already creating the “financial plumbing” to get investment into rural communities.
Isolated farmer support services.
To translate finance into profitable investments, farmers need access to climate information, climate-smart inputs or equipment, and markets that reward climate action - all at the same time. To turn dollars into impact, support models providing farmers with complimentary “service bundles” needed to unlock effective climate action.
History of external actors “parachuting” in and out.
Climate action often requires changes in farming practices. Farmers need to trust the source of climate information and finance to feel confident making transformative investments. Partner with actors who have done the hard work to build social capital with farmers, and who are investing in communities for the long term.
