THE Sitawi concluded in record time the third round of investments in businesses with a positive socio-environmental impact through its Collective Loan Platform, an initiative in partnership with the Sabin Institute. In less than two hours, 98 investors made 136 investment reservations, contributing a total of R$ 800 thousand in the two selected organizations: Manaós Tech, from Manaus, and Movimento Eu Visto o Bem, from São Paulo.
The amounts invested started from R$ 1 thousand (minimum amount allowed), with 77% of investments reaching up to R$ 5 thousand, demonstrating the great interest of small investors in impact investing. The capital invested will be returned in fixed installments of 30 months, plus interest equivalent to 7.15% per year, 376% of the CDI.
The businesses that were captured by the Platform intend to use the resources to leverage their operations. A Manaos Tech, a technology education school for children and adolescents, raised R$ 317 thousand and intends to expand to peripheral regions of Manaus. O Movement I Wear Good, which generates employment and income for socially vulnerable women in São Paulo, raised R$ 484 thousand, which will guarantee working capital for contracts with large retailers, among other objectives (see below for more information on impact businesses).
THE Collective Loan Platform was launched in June 2019 and is an initiative of Sitawi, to enable investors, especially individuals, to lend money directly and digitally for the success and growth of organizations with a mission to generate a positive socio-environmental impact. On the one hand, investors obtain competitive returns. On the other hand, businesses have access to a line of credit with lower interest rates than those practiced in the market. The model is known as Peer-to-Peer lending.
Since its launch, the Platform has carried out three investment rounds, which have contributed to mobilizing R$ 5.6 million for 12 businesses with a positive socio-environmental impact, with the participation of 273 investors. ?In 15 months of the platform, we have seen a growing demand from small investors for this type of investment. Our expectation is to do more rounds and leverage the number of impact institutions served and the volume of funding. For the next year, do we foresee a growth of up to 3 times in the volume mobilized in 2020?, it says Andrea Resende, manager of Investment of Impact of Sitawi.
Upcoming fundraising through the Platform
THE Sitawi will carry out another round of investment through the Collective Loan Platform later this year. As in previous rounds, the focus will be on companies that are ready to grow and contribute to mitigating the impacts of the crisis and to the post-COVID-19 economic recovery, with robust business plans for the return on investments.
Until then, people interested in investing can register on the site to receive the news and will be notified first hand about the opening of funding.
selected businesses
See more about the 2 impact businesses that received investment through the 3rd Collective Loan Round Sitawi:
Manaos Tech
THE Manaos Tech is a technological education school for children and teenagers located in Manaus (AM), with a methodology that values the student's protagonism and develops skills such as creativity, critical thinking and collaboration during problem solving. In courses on programming, robotics, application creation and games, students also learn about impact entrepreneurship, how to use technology to promote positive changes in society and contribute to the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
More than 3,000 students have already taken Manaós Tech courses, either at its own unit where it receives children and adolescents from all social backgrounds, with full scholarships for 25% of students, at the 4 laboratories it operates in private schools or in workshops organized in partnership with other organizations. They are young people who have the opportunity to master a technological language that prepares and qualifies them for the professions of the future. Students receive content and practical activities on the themes of innovation, logic, cooperation, creativity, internet of things, citizenship, among others, which allows expanding the learning and production capacity of these children and adolescents in a context of freedom to develop their own projects . The hired teachers are all trained at the state university, as a way of valuing the local workforce.
Thirst: Manaus, AM
Founded in: 2014
Founders: Glauco Aguiar and Luiz Garcia
How much did you capture: R$ 317 thousand
How you intend to use the investment: Manaós Tech will expand to 5 new schools in the peripheral regions of Manaus, which do not have the conditions to have a laboratory and robotics teaching, in order to be able to serve students unable to travel to the city center, in addition to developing an online teaching platform with gamified video lessons, in which the student studies as if they were in a game and can customize the course of learning.
Movement I Wear Good
With the mission of offering environmental and social solutions for the corporate market, with a focus on professional training and job and income generation for vulnerable women, the Movement I Wear Good employs detainees, ex-detainees, refugees and immigrants to make clothes and accessories. The Movement was born from the clothing brand made from sustainable fabrics, Joaquina Brasil, and today it also includes aspects of producing uniforms, gifts and packaging for companies and, in a non-profit initiative with other organizations, making masks to prevent Covid-19 . Among its clients are large companies such as Natura and Renner.
The Eu Visto o Bem Movement employs 20 female inmates from the Butantã women's prison, in São Paulo (SP), who also participate in professional training workshops and lectures on financial education, self-esteem, among other topics. In addition, it maintains a production shed where 25 women work, including former prisoners, refugees and immigrants. Historically, the movement has already employed 200 women in vulnerable situations, being the first formal job for many of them. In testimonials provided to Sitawi, it was seen that the formal contract was a transforming factor in the lives of these women. With this job opportunity, they were able to keep custody of their children, participate in their upbringing, return to their country of origin or send resources to support the family. All of the fabrics used in the production of the Eu Visto o Bem Movement are sustainable: leftovers from the industry, recycled from PET bottles or antiviral and antibacterial fabrics. The material that is left over and cannot be reused is defibred to become pillow stuffing.
Thirst: Sao Paulo-SP
Founded in: 2018
Founder: Roberta Negrini
How much did you capture: R$ 484 thousand
How you intend to use the investment: The investment in Movimento Eu Visto O Bem will guarantee working capital for contracts with large retailers, in addition to helpingto structure an entrepreneurship course to enable women prisoners to set up their own business after being released, digitalize processes and update production machinery and invest in improvements in their communication channels.
