Production capacity development

2X Collaborative Limited - EUR 250,000 Development Contribution

The 2X Challenge was launched at the G7 Summit 2018 as a joint commitment by the development finance institutions (DFIs). The 2X initiative has since been at the forefront of building the global field of gender lens investing (GLI). Today, hundreds of companies and investors are using the 2X Criteria as a global industry standard for GLI. Building on this success, the 2X Collaborative was launched at the Generation Equality Forum in 2021 as a global industry body for gender lens investing, with membership open to the full spectrum of capital providers alongside the DFIs. In 2022, the 2X Collaborative merged with GenderSmart and rebranded to 2X Global. 2X Global has over 90 member institutions today and has 3 strategy pillars: build investor capacity, align and advance standards, and shift and shape markets. In this project, FMO will seek to support knowledge development and sharing on Gender topics for FMO and its clients especially on 1) Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion. 2) addressing Gender-Based Violence (GBVH). Knowledge sharing will be done through the digital academy and tools and knowledge that are being developed.

60 Decibels, INC - EUR 333,000 Technical Assistance

FMO has partnered with 60 Decibels, an end-to-end impact measurement company with deep  measurement expertise coupled with proprietary lean data approach that brings customer- centricity, speed and responsiveness to impact measurement to implemented a four year project to support 15 FMO clients to upscale their impact measurement capabilities. The objectives for this project are: i) to provide customer centric impact measurement services to clients ii) share recommendations with clients and FMO about building sustainable impact measurement practices. An outcome of this initiative is to support clients to strengthen their businesses by enhancing their strategies based on a strong foundation of data. 

Accion International - EUR 94,185 Development Contribution and EUR 43,800 Development Contribution

In this project, FMO will be partering with Accion International’s Center for Financial Inclusion (CFI) to carry out an interdisciplinary, market-level research in the MENA Region. The objective of this project is to help the financial sector understand the limitations of existing data collection mechanisms that often fail to capture the full picture of the complex lives of people with limited data trails in digital financial inclusion. This project is highly relevant to FMO and to the financial sector as digitalisation and technology-driven solutions have taken a priority role over the last years. Understanding the implications of data in financial inclusion are essential for FMO, partners, and clients. Potential clients to be scoped are those that are using algorithms to make decisions. Results will be used to inform other clients and their strategies,We also collaborated with Acccion on a second project in the year. The aim of this project is to support Accion to make the Fintech CEO Forum and the Fintech for Inclusion Global Summit possible in 2022. This forum brought together global practisioners, investors and fintech enterprises to exhange on best practises, advancements, opportunities and challenges in the sector.

Advans International - EUR 187,800 Development Contribution

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Conscious that its clients will be the most affected by climate change, Advans has defined a Climate Change Strategy, to integrate the effects and impacts of climate change into its core business model. In order to successfully implement this strategy, Advans needs to mobilize all of its key stakeholders and ensure they are aware of the impact climate change will have on its operation.The first part of this project included an organization-wide climate change awareness training for all staff members of Advans. Some key highlights of the session can be found in this video. This project aligns strongly with FMO’s commitment to SDG 13 and mobilizes climate action for an MFI Group which enables the development of MSMEs in fragile and Low-Income Countries (LIC). This project helps Advans integrate the effects and impacts of climate change into their core business model to serve its BoP customers more effectively and is therefore also in line with MASSIF’s strategy of driving financial inclusion in a sustainable and responsible way.

Die Koop Finansiering Ltd - EUR 81,000 Development Contribution

Our customer is Die Koop Finansiering Ltd (Die Koop), a subsidiary of an agricultural cooperative in Humansdorp, South-Africa. The funding objective is the strengthening of the co-operative group’s cooperative’s credit and risk management processes and practices. This project aligns with FMO’s ambition to help its clients grow strong, sustainable and inclusive businesses. Supporting Die Koop with the set up of a strong credit and risk management component to service its members and especially its underserved members, is part of that ambition.

ERM INDIA PRIVATE LIMITED - EUR 54,000 Technical Assistance

FMO's experience has demonstrated that E&S capacity in Nepal is almost non-existent and engaged in a sector wide initiative with the banks' and energy producers in the country. The aim is to address the E&S gap to increase Nepal's eligibility for international funding. These E&S and ESMS trainings as part of the Nepal ESG Sector Initiative. This project is connected to the MASSIF strategy because it is focused on strenthening the financial institutions with the aim of unlocking financial support to MSMEs in Nepal.

The Lebanese Association for Development - EUR 59,520 Technical Assistance, EUR 228,376.69 Development Contribution and EUR 5,000 Development Contribution

The Lebanese Association for Development – Al Majmoua (“AM”) is/was the largest microfinance institution (non-deposit taking) in Lebanon, which was founded by Save the Children in 1994, and started its activities by providing group-loans to women in urban and rural areas. AM has a non-profit organization status, in the legal form of a foundation, hence no shareholders. AM has been FMO’s debt customer since 2018. Al Majmoua has in the last years faced signifacant challenges in mobilising its lending portfolio due to macro-economic and political challenges in Lebabon. This project was designed to provide emergency advisory support via Frankfurt school of finance to Al Majmoua, to ensure the survival of the organisation. Furthermore, the project was aimed to provide a roadmap to establish a new USD loan product line and portfolio.

FUNDACIO INSTITUT D EDUCACIO CONTIN - EUR 23,000 Technical Assistance

This project is part of the E&S sector wide initiative in Nepal with banks and energy companies. The aim of this assignment is to facilitate an assessment of a potential ESG university program in Nepal to build local capacity. This connects to the Massif strategy as this projects is one of the ecosystem elements that aims to educate young Nepalese generations on sustainable and inclusive business practices, for corporates and M(W)SMEs.

Gazelle Finance Holding Cooperatief - EUR 480,000 Development Contribution

​​​​​​​​​​​​In collaboration with DFC, DGGF and Gazelle Finance, FMO launched an economic recovery facility to provide technical assistance to Ukrainian small and medium enterprises (SMEs) whose businesses have been negatively impacted by the war. The new facility builds upon an existing FMO investment in Gazelle, which provides capital to SMEs in key sectors in the South Caucasus, including Georgia, to boost development. Provided TA will help war-effected SMEs to rapidly adapt and expand to new markets to enhance revenue streams. With a focus on gender and refugee finance, this promises to be an impactful project. ​​​​​​​This is closely aligned with FMO’s strategy to reduce inequalities and its commitment to fragile countries. MASSIF funds this project because it aims to enhance the capacity and performance of SMEs, ultimately enhancing the development impact of the SMEs and the financial performance of the Fund.

Global Off Grid Lighting Association - EUR 300,000 Development Contribution

GOGLA is the global association for the off-grid solar energy industry. Their 200+ members provide millions of low-income and climate-vulnerable people with affordable, high-quality products and services; rapidly increasing customers’ productivity, connectivity, and resilience. To enable sustainable businesses and accelerate energy access, they provide market insights, standards and best practice, and advocate for catalytic policies, programmes and investment. FMO has partnered with GOGLA and provided this funding to enable GOGLA expand the value and influence of their work on financial transparency and consumer protection and supports the development of setting the industry standards on other topics such as e-waste.

Global Private Capital Association - EUR 30,000 Development Contribution

FMO will support GPCA in the development of projects to improve fund management skills, encourage knowledge sharing, and initiate ecosystem initiatives for GPs within FMO’s portfolio and in the wider PE space. -

JSC MFO Crystal - EUR 200,000 Development Contribution

SC Microfinance Organization Crystal (Crystal) is Georgia’s fourth largest microfinance lender with 60 thousand customers, 36 branches and a loan portfolio of USD 60m. Headquartered in Kutaisi, a regional city in the northwest of Georgia, it has a strong outreach in the country’s rural areas (>60 percent of loan portfolio), especially in its home region. FMO is contributing to Crystal's banking transformation process, which includes changes in the organizational structure and processes, implementation of new core banking software, development of new risk management system, and up-skilling of employees. This project will support Crystal to become a more professional institution, improving access to finance for Georgian micro businesses and SMEs, especially in rural areas.

Kompanion Bank CJSC - EUR 150,000 Development Contribution

Kompanion Bank is a mission driven MSME bank in Kyrgyzstan in which FMO has been a shareholder since 2014 and is also a debt provider since 2013. The majority of the bank’s portfolio is composed of microfinance loans. This project aims to improve the bank’s focus on customer centricity of its digital products and, thereby, serve its existing and future (rural) customer base more effectively. This project will improve access to finance and contribute to the development of the rural and predominantly low-income communities of the Kyrgyz region.

Nomisma Mobile Solutions Private Limited - EUR 18,212 Technical Assistance

Nomisma Mobile Solutions Private Limited (“FtCash”) is a fintech company based out of Mumbai. FtCash offers micro, small and medium sized (MSME) merchants payment solutions and access to financial services by underwriting loans based on digital payments data and collecting them from card payments (merchant cash advance model). The Company operates as a distributor of financial services and payments with an off-balance sheet model in partnership with financial service providers. FT Cash is an FMO client via the Ventures program. In this project, FMO worked with MicroFinanza Rating SRL (MFR) to conduct an Consumer Protection Principal (CPP)assessment. This is aimed to assess and improve the FI's CPP practices and policies.

D. Light Design Inc - EUR 16,350 Technical Assistance

d.light is a leading off-grid energy provider that offers a range of solutions to lower income households, from small solar-lanterns to pay-as-you-go (“PAYGO”) solar home systems. d.light is headquartered in Nairobi and mostly sells and finances their products in East Africa and India, thereby providing a sustainable alternative to polluting kerosene lanterns and other fossil fuel based alternative energy sources. Through this project, FMO support d.light in Kenya to strengthen their Client Protection Principles based on the GOGLA Consumer Protection Code.

M-KOPA Kenya Limited - USD 150,000 Development Contribution

M-KOPA is an asset financing platform that offers millions of underbanked customers access to life-enhancing products and services. The company provides solar home systems and appliances, cookstoves, smartphones and digital financial services on a ‘pay-as-you-go’ basis, enabling customers in Kenya, Uganda and Nigeria to access products that they would otherwise not be able to afford on a cash basis. The objective of this project is to test and scale electric motorbikes (e-bikes) as a new M-KOPA product line. This will be done through i) consultancy support on battery analytics and ii) piloting the ‘2nd Life Battery Buy Back’ scheme’, a facility that will be used by M-KOPA to re-purchase batteries, helping drive adoption of the-bikes.

Nomanini Holdings Proprietary Ltd. - EUR 28,000 Development Contribution

With headquarters in South Africa, Nomanini Holdings Proprietary Ltd. (Nomanini) offers technological solutions for informal retailers across Africa, allowing them to access financial services and improve access to working capital within the FMCG value chain. Nomanini focuses on unbanked vendors, kiosk- and shop holders, while its strategic partnerships allow the FinTech platform to be one of the 'winning' models. This fits with MASSIF's objective to support end-beneficiaries through financing local financial intermediaries and institutions.The funding objective is to strengthen Nomanini’s Corporate Governance by enabling the company to appoint an Independent Director as Chairperson. A scond objective of this financing is to complement FMO’s pre-Series B financing and support Nomanini with a package of venture technical assistance support activities including Transaction Advisory, HR Advisory and a Client Protection Principles Assessment.

Sajida Foundation - EUR 26,100 Development Contribution

Sajida Foundation (SF) was set up in 1993 as a non-profit organization, with a view to improving the quality of life in the local communities through sustainable and effective intervention. SF is the 7th largest MFI in Bangladesh. In this project, FMO's financing was used to support Sajida Foundation to enhance its IT Infrastructure health and people skills with the support of external consultants. This will allow Sajida to reach best practices and further enhance their IT Infrastructure capacity including security as well as IT staff skills and avoid incidents in the future.

Social Perfromance Task Force - EUR 200,000 Development Contribution

FMO has partnered with the Social Performance Task Force (SPTF) and Cerise to a) Identify and incorporate new client protection risks coming from digitisation of financial services; b) Update client protection-related tools and quality control; c) Train experts on the latest client protection best practices; and d) Maintain IT Maintenance & improve Communications with industry players.Through this project, we contribute to making sure that vulnerable low-income clients are not exploited, and that financial products and services in developing economies help create better lives.

Joint Impact Model - EUR 65,000 Development Contribution

FMO is one of the founding members of the Joint Impact Model (JIM) together with other key DFIs. Measuring and reporting on impact in a consistent and comparable way is essential to evaluate progress towards global development needs and priorities, assess effectiveness of investments and drive impactful actions. MASSIF has partnered with the JIM team to support our clients to set up and properly measure and report on key indicators using aligned methodology. The ultimate goal is to bring comparability, accountability, transparency and thought leadership to the financial industry, by measuring key impact indicators in a harmonized way (economic development via jobs created and GHG emissions). 

Medical Credit Fund - EUR 155,000 Development Contribution

As part of PharmAccess Group, Medical Credit Fund (MCF) seeks to build the capacity of health systems in Sub-Saharan Africa and increase access to better healthcare services. MCF focuses on small and medium-sized health enterprises and combines innovative financing solutions with technical assistance and training on business and quality improvement, which will be possible through FMO’s CD support and financing in collaboration with Swedfund. Under this project, MCF will work on developing new digital products, conducting needs assessment in Kenya to understand how financial products can be improved to make them as beneficial as possible for women, and setting up a Technical Assistance Facility for healthcare providers.

Tech Accelerator (PTY) Ltd. - EUR 180,000 Development Contribution

Startupbootcamp is the leading corporate-backed accelerator in Africa, and the success of their alumni is a direct result of the extensive Corporate Startup Collaboration. The ASIP Accelerator is anchored by leading corporate sponsor Telecel Group an entity that aims to support the next generation of early-stage African tech startups disrupting key industry verticals that include FinTech, InsureTech, AgriTech, eCommerce, Digital Health, and CleanTech. Telecel will provide the participating startups with access to markets through their mobile services across the continent. FMO partnered with startupbootcamp AfriTech to expand their existing “ASIP Accelerator Program” to source from and include ventures from more challenging, second-tier markets than where they would focus without FMO funding.

VILLAGE CAPITAL - USD 398,710 Development Contribution

This project will contribute to FMO's Reducing Inequalities ambition by identifying, selecting and vetting high impact potential companies that serve populations at the bottom 40 of the economic pyramid and provide them with working capital to scale their operations. The investment thesis for these projects incorporates the progression model to Massif's investment portfolio.

Watu Credit Limited - EUR 32,000 Development Contribution

Watu Credit Limited (Kenya) (‘Watu’) is a micro-lending company providing pay as you go financing to young entrepreneurs operating motorcycles (boda bodas) and tuk tuks transport businesses in Kenya. Watu’s mission is to meaningfully improve employment and opportunities for those with the greatest barriers to access financial services. Watu has been operating since 2015 and currently has operations across Kenya serving more than 200,000 clients. Watu is a new FMO client as at the end of 2022. In addition to debt financing, FMO provided this development contribution financing to contribute towards the development and implementation of Watu’s client satisfaction baseline survey, which will help to better understand its social impact, areas of opportunity, and clients’ needs.

CLASSM - EUR 45,400 Technical Assistance

Funding objective is a market mapping study for Senegal, a new country for FMO’s AFW department. The aim of the assignment is to map the countries opportunities for value chain investments in line with Massif's aims for support of financing of smallholder farmers.

Mercon B.V. - EUR 15,000 Development Contribution

Mercon, a vertically integrated coffee company in Nicaragua with a farmer financing arm (Mercapital). MASSIF provided a senior loan to Mercapital of USD 5 million in 2018 and later in 2019, a subordinated loan of USD 5 million, both with the aim to support the growth of the farmer finance portfolio, especially on medium and long-term loans. We provided this financing to support Mercon to implement an ESG tool to further improve their impact in the coffee sector in Nicaragua.

NATHAN ASSOCIATES LONDON LTD. - EUR 111,5000 Development Contribution

Invest for Impact Nepal (IIN) platform: aims to strgthen financial intermediaries to improve their ESG capabilities, to facilitate linkages between suitable investees and investors leading to effective transactions. IIN will also coordinate with regulators in order to advocate for a more effective FDI regulatory framework for all investors, and will strgthen Nepal Private Equity Association. With concrete outputs and outcomes, IIN will exit to a stronger investment ecosystem capable of accelerating DFI investment without assistance. By stregthening intermediary channels of FI and Funds, IIN will accelerate investment opportunities intro productive and inclusive Nepalese firms by DFIs. DFI investments are crucial to help meet Nepal's capital needs, accelerate induatrialization, promote the SME sector ann fill the current financial gap.

DOLMA CONSULTING LTD. - EUR 24,652 Technical Assistance