Portfolio Partner Profile
Advance Global Capital
Advance Global Capital, Ltd (AGC) is an open-ended fund that provides debt financing to non-bank financial institutions (NBFIs) that offer financing solutions to small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The Fund's strategy is based on the premise that SMEs, particularly those in developing countries, have a significant unmet need for financing. A second premise is that invoice discounting or factoring is uniquely suited to address this problem because it transfers credit risk from small, harder-to-finance businesses to the larger companies that buy their products.
AGC believes that the best way to reduce poverty is through sustained inclusive economic growth. AGC’s flagship fund puts capital to work in underserved communities worldwide by financing SMEs that lack sufficient access to credit and need it to thrive. The organization’s investments deliver tailored financing to local partners and flexible, working capital to SMEs so they can grow and continue to positively impact the local economies around them.
AGC focuses on targeting the following types of impact activities as they align with the UN Sustainable Development Goals, including: gender equality, decent work and economic growth, industry innovation and infrastructure, and reduced inequalities.
Calvert Impact has been working with AGC since 2017 and we have furthered our commitment by renewing and increasing our first investment in the fund in 2018 and 2022. Through our relationship with AGC, Calvert Impact is able to channel capital to financial intermediaries that serve a diverse group of SMEs and further scale impact to underserved communities.
Below are three profiles of SMEs supported by AGC and the impact the fund has had on local economies, women, and agriculture globally.
Featured Impact Story
Impact Story
Support for Export-Led Growth in Colombia’s Dairy Sector
Pais Emprendedor was founded as a family company in 2012 with the goal to provide valuable nutritional dairy products to communities in Colombia while strengthening export alliances. Their current facility is located in Caquetá, Colombia, where they create products for their brand, River Cheese. Pais Emprendedor began with just five employees in 2012 and managed to reach 120 employees during COVID-19. The company faced cash flow constraints but has since found support from AGC’s partner who specializes in providing financing options to small businesses that are underserved by the traditional banking systems in Colombia. Catalina, co-owner of Pais Emprendedor, describes AGC’s partner, as the company’s alternative source for growth. “When you want to grow, you need help,” she explains. “You need some other element that gives you a path. So, the advice is amazing, and we have found a helping hand in how to focus our growth and organize.”
Many families and individuals in the local area own cattle and supply dairy to buyers, including Pais Emprendedor. The company has 400 milk suppliers who require payment within 15 days and Pais Emprendedor is often their suppliers’ only source of income. Their suppliers are more than just links in the chain; they’re small families, including women, who own cattle and partner closely with River Cheese. With the support from AGC’s partner, Pais Emprendedor is able to pay suppliers more quickly, reduce financial debt, and reach positive profit figures. To continue their growth, Pais Emprendedor is driven to elevate their brand to specialty cheese and create a diverse range of products for export. With well-managed machinery, talented employees, and creative ideas in place, Pais Emprendedor is motivated to expand its horizons while remaining committed to preserving their family-owned legacy.
Learn more about Pais Emprendedor and River Cheese, here.
Impact Story
Ugandan Entrepreneurship: A journey for women in agriculture
Ms. Jovia Kagezi, founder of Hola Milk, was introduced to the dairy industry in the late 1990s, when she needed to support her five children after her husband’s passing. When Jovia began selling maize, she was met with many challenges which included obtaining a loan from a bank. Jovia’s relative, a high-ranking man in a government role, was her only option to start her maize business as she was unable to acquire a loan without him. This situation underscores the importance of AGC's mission to champion inclusive financing for women-led SMEs. Women, particularly in emerging markets, are often met with resistance when trying to access financing and must rely on a man with title to assets. Jovia eventually returned to Uganda and was able to purchase 100 acres of land from the thriving maize business that she had in Sudan. However, after the separation of North and South Sudan, her business partner fled and took the profits from their business with him.
That’s when Jovia started her milk company. While setting up her business, she secured a loan from a local bank, however all the profits she earned from selling milk went towards paying back the loan. AGC’s partner, an aggregator connecting suppliers and buyers in the dairy industry, introduced Jovia to Sam Ssebaduka, one of the largest milk distributors in the region. Together, they established their small business, Hola Milk. The company is the only business in the country with a pasteurizer and can guarantee that their product will keep for 10 days. Jovia said of her working relationship with AGC’s partner, “The challenges we had were with cash flow. There was no money for cash flow. We worked with AGC’s partner to try invoice discounting… Another issue we had was that we didn’t have a UNBS stamp”. Acting as a literal stamp of approval and proof of reliability, the UNBS stamp is granted by the government to businesses with quality products and helps them to enter new markets. Financing from AGC’s partner was crucial for Hola Milk's operations as they provided cash for milk sales, eventually ensuring smooth operations.
Impact Story
From Beans to Bright Futures: Empowering Uganda’s Coffee Community
During a recent visit to Kampala, Uganda, AGC’s Co-CEO Sudha Bharadia learned about the value that coffee brings to the local community. The Central Coffee Farmers Association (CECOFA), formerly known as Nsangi Coffee Farmers Association, was established in 2004 and has been bringing its community of farmers in central Uganda together for two decades. The association uses coffee to spearhead its mission to address poverty through agricultural practices and has grown from 5,000 to 135,000 farmers. CECOFA not only aims to meet demand for local coffee consumption and exports from Uganda, but also focuses its efforts on supporting the elderly, children, and women in their community. The association fosters an environment for women to develop their community through handicrafts.
Although CECOFA has developed its farming community and teams, resources for working capital remained a challenge at various stages of the value chain. AGC’s partner operates a financial services company for sectors such as agriculture to support SMEs like CECOFA. Through their model, SMEs can sell their products to buyers at better terms or receive a payment in advance, enabling them to fulfil orders. This has been beneficial to CECOFA as it can take up to two months for them to receive payments. With assistance from AGC’s partner, CECOFA was able to acquire a grading machine to use in the process of preparing products for export. “By the time AGC’s partner met us, we were doing five containers per year. Now, we are targeting 20 per week in our facility,” explains Buule Ronald, Executive Director of CECOFA, regarding the growth of the company's production facility. The scale of coffee exportation is considerable, generating the need for resources not only for payments but also for acquiring essential equipment to meet the demand for exports.
Impact Story
Supporting Plant-based Food Start-up, Filgud
In spring of 2023, Co-CEO of AGC, Sudha Bharadia, visited one of AGC’s end client’s Filgud, a plant-based food company founded in 2019. Filgud began selling products in 2020, during a time when global lockdowns encouraged more sustainable lifestyles, and the world became more cognizant of consumer habits. Andrei Rosu, founder of Filgud, shared “So, this is how we got the idea of solving a problem. People are eating, especially in Romania, too much cheese and it’s not sustainable.” Filgud strives to provide 100% plant-based options as alternatives to animal products.
Start-ups and small- and medium-sized enterprises frequently experience barriers to funding, which continue to limit their ability to grow and scale. AGC’s partner provided financing to support Filgud’s cashflow, helping the company to meet competing payment deadlines. Andrei explained, “We had cashflow problems because, at the beginning, we were covering our own resources and investments. But as the business had grown, it was harder because we’d collect from our receivables in thirty to forty-five days from supermarkets and other key accounts while still paying everything upfront. The cashews, the jars… everything. So, we had this gap increasing and we couldn’t develop our company more. In that moment we found out about AGC’s partner, started an instant collaboration and are very grateful.’’
Beyond providing alternatives to dairy and animal products, the additional funding has allowed Fildgud to offer a wider variety of localized foods crafted from ingredients like seaweed extract and soybeans. Additionally, Filgud has retained all 8 of their employees who were hired at the company’s inception. Although the market for plant-based eating in Romania is still emerging, the growing trend and customer demand has been acknowledged through reports to Andrei by food delivery courier workers.
Impact Story
Building community and Colombia’s economy through Carnaval de Barranquilla
In December 2022, Advance Global Capital’s Co-CEO, Sudha Bharadia, visited their partner in Barranquilla, Colombia to learn how they are supporting Carnaval de Barranquilla. The festival is a year-round operation with traditions that are influenced by the Caribbean, Spanish, and African cultures, and is essential to Barranquilla’s economy. AGC’s partner financially supports the various aspects of the celebration from costume creation to float and accessory manufacturing. AGC’s partnership contributes to the economic development of the region, as over 55,000 jobs across media, crafts, theater, entertainment, tourism, and music are created to support the festival. Read more about Carnaval de Barranquilla here.
Impact Story
Expanding offerings in the Baltic region, a journey with Finora
One of AGC’s impact objectives is to strengthen local financial ecosystems. They have achieved this through their relationship with Finora, an Estonia-based partner, which began in 2018. In spring 2023, Finora shared details on their journey to becoming a bank. Finora had a mutually beneficial relationship with AGC that enabled them to expand their operations by outgrowing the partnership and seeking alternative means of raising capital. They value AGC’s position in the market because smaller lenders like Finora are constantly struggling to get funding from large banking institutions to support small businesses. Banks in their region are typically not supportive and as a result, AGC presents a reliable avenue as a way that non-bank lenders can get funding and continue the chain of impact to help SMEs.
Through the new factoring product, AGC helped Finora grow their portfolio over time to support more SMEs through a variety of services and accelerate their strategy, which led to Finora’s “graduation” from the portfolio and their success in becoming a bank. Learn more about their journey here.
Impact Story
Prepared ingredients and at home recipes from Colombian scale-up, Vive Agro
In 2022, Advance Global Capital worked with their partner institution to help a business in Colombia drive smart economic growth. AGC gained insight into how cashflow momentum is helping Vive Agro, an agricultural operations company that provides vegetables for at-home recipe kits and wholesale prepared ingredients for kitchens and several major restaurant chains.
In collaboration with a Bogota-based non-bank financial institution partner, Vive Agro’s recent developments include farming innovation methods and produce manufacturing in Colombia.
80% of the staff at the processing facility in Bogota are women, for whom flexible work schedules have been critical. Juan Felipe Arbelaez, co-founder of Vive Agro shares, “We offer flexible working which is attractive to women workers. Mothers are really hard workers because they need the money and want to work.” Vivie Agro works to ensure a well-balanced and respectful relationship between employees and employer, as the company continues to increase employment opportunities to meet demand.
Video transcript:
“We believe that there is a link between Colombia’s wellbeing and the sustainability of its rural areas. That is why we recognize the importance of each and every contribution and promote fair and cohesive relationships. We support the development of small and medium-sized farms across the country. When you step through these doors you are making a difference to our country’s future. We select, wash, cut and pack in our state-of-the-art facilities and according to our customers’ needs, ensuring that our products are safe, traceable and high quality. We deliver products with purpose and cultivate recipe flavors, using our finest vegetables. We produce bespoke vegetables using clean and responsible farming methods.”
Impact Story
Leveling the playing field by financing truckers in the heart of Europe
One of AGC’s Czechia-based partners helps to sustain small businesses — despite nearby military conflict and challenging economic times. By specializing in financing for individual truck drivers, AGC’s partner institution provides funding to SMEs operating in supply chain and logistics industries. The father-son team that runs the partner institution sought to modernize with fintech solutions to improve products and services and to optimize risk management. Using data analysis and automation, AGC’s partner offers instant risk modelling, allowing customers to receive payment of invoices within minutes. The simplicity and efficiency of the automated system gives customers peace of mind as limited working capital, 90-day invoice maturities, and expensive or unattainable bank financing are common issues that logistics companies in Europe face. AGC’s work with their partner institution has helped to support customers by providing them with the resources they need to grow their businesses. To learn more about AGC’s impact in the supply chain and logistical industries, visit the story here.
Small Business
Gender Equity
