A little over a month ago, the Sitawi Collective Loan Platform, launched by Sitawi good finance with the support of Sabin Institute, has already exceeded R$ 1 million raised in loans for businesses with a positive socio-environmental impact. Of the 5 organizations that entered the platform, two have already reached their goal, well before the end of the maximum funding period, defined as August 12th.
The platform is available on the website www.emprestimocoletivo.net. It is possible to research the profile, impact and financial projections of the businesses, and lend to those with open funding. The minimum loan amount is R$ 1 mil. And the repayment will be monthly, with interest of 1% (also per month). In up to 24 months, investors will have received all the borrowed money back. The entire operation is carried out through the P2P lending model, in partnership with CapRate.
Businesses will use the money to leverage their operations. Coopsertão, a cooperative from Pintadas, Bahia, and the first organization to reach the target, plans to double its pulp production in 2019. “Today we managed to buy between 2% and 3% of fruit production from our cooperative members. With the loan we want to reach 50%”, says Valdirene Oliveira, president of Coopsertão. For Valdirene, the support of the investors who participated in the collective loan will give the cooperative a new horizon – and will have a great impact in the Pintadas region, a municipality with around 10,000 inhabitants. “Our reality is difficult, mainly because of the climate. It is a satisfaction, and a motivation, to know that people from so many parts of the country believe in our project”, he says.
Choice of projects
The organizations that are on the platform were selected by Sitawi Finance for Good based on their historical growth, financial sustainability, impact and leadership. The sum of all amounts sought by the businesses is R$ 1.5 million. ?Working with finance means making decisions, judgments that presuppose values integrated into financial decisions. These values become entwined in money and move in society to build the world. In this way, capital always moves with values and it is up to us to decide what these values are and what we put in front of money?, says Leonardo Letelier, founder and CEO of Sitawi Finances for Good.
Democratization of impact investing
Sitawi Financeira do Bem was a pioneer in collective impact lending in Brazil and is now expanding its operations to reduce barriers towards the democratization of impact investing in Brazil. Therefore, the choice of model crowdfunding, which already adds up to US$ 34 billion a year worldwide, and is expected to grow 10 times by 2025. with more purpose. On the other hand, are the impact businesses, which need capital to grow and continue to positively impact the environment and the lives of thousands of people?, comments Andrea Resende, Social Finance Manager at Sitawi.
With this spirit in mind, the collective loan platform was created on the initiative of Sitawi, with ten years of experience and history in impact investing, and the Sabin Institute, with articulation and focus on innovation in social finance. The Institute's initial contribution was R$ 500 thousand, in a structure of blended finance, in which philanthropic capital is used to subsidize the operation, provide anchor investment and attract market investors.
Fábio Deboni, executive manager of the Sabin Institute, explains that the platform is similar to the collective crowdfunding, but with a different bias: the resources are raised as loans, not as donations. ?Our goal is for the Institute's investment to leverage more resources from individuals and companies”, he explains.
In addition to bringing new resources to organizations with few available loan options, the platform aims to consolidate crowdfunding as an impactful financial instrument. ?With this initiative, social impact organizations will have the opportunity to obtain loans at a reasonable interest rate, which is currently not possible in public and private banks?, praises Fábio.
selected businesses
Check out the 5 impact businesses that are on the collective loan platform:
COOPSERTÃO (funding completed):
The Cooperativa Ser do Sertão – COOPSERTÃO brings together producers from the Agricultural and Family Farming sector in Pintadas, in the interior of Bahia. Founded in 2008, its mission is to promote the strengthening of family farming through cooperativism, with agroecological practices and professionalization of production units. The cooperative was an initiative of women in the region, and is still managed by a majority of women and with relevant participation of women producers in the membership base. At the end of its 2nd year of operation, the organization basically disposed of umbu and fruits typical of the region, transforming them into jellies, sweets and pulps. Today, after 10 years of existence, it is expanding a fruit pulp factory. All surplus from the operation is redistributed for the implementation of techniques agroecological farms, with the aim of enabling production throughout the year, without drought interrupting the production process. Main SDGs: 2 Zero Hunger, 3 Health and Well-Being, 5 Gender Equality and 12 Responsible Consumption and Production.
Organics in Box:
Founded in 2014 in Rio de Janeiro, the organization was born from the desire to provide food certified organic for consumers at prices below what is commonly practiced in this segment – in addition to valuing small rural producers, who now have a reliable outlet for their products at fair prices. For this, Orgânicos in Box has developed an e-mail platformcommerce of 100% certified organic products, which spreads withOrganic food around the city ofthe Rio de Janeiro. Since the beginning of its operation, Orgânicos has sold approximately 300 tons of pesticide-free food, currently growing at a rate of 10 tons per month. Main SDGs: 2 – Zero Hunger and Sustainable Agriculture, 3 – Health and Well-being and 6 – Drinking Water and Sanitation.
UPShealth (uptake ended):
UPSaúde is a company created in Rio Grande do Norte in 2018 with the aim of improving various aspects of Public Health communication, aiming at decrease of queues and promoting easy access to information. Through a smart appof data, the organization serves all public health publics,sitting features for doctors, hospital managers and patients. Thanks to online consultation appointments, availability of management reports and telemedicina, has already promoted an average reduction of 38% in queues for assistance in municipalities that contracted the service. Main SDGs: 1 – Poverty Eradication and 3 – Health and Well-Being.
Status4:
Develops software for Ag Distribution Managementua, focusing on the automatic detection of leaks in the distribution network. It locates leaks more efficiently than traditionally used methods, in addition to adding intelligence to the service: it indicates water consumption, points of attention for possible losses and reports based on artificial intelligence, to provide more precision and speed to the diagnosis. Stattus4 was founded in 2016 in Sorocaba, in the interior of São Paulo. It already has contracts with private and public water distributors, such as Iguá Saneamento (through Águas Cuiabá), and also with gas distributors, thanks to minor adjustments to the sensor. Its solution has already reduced from 30% to 18%, for example, the gross water loss of the Sociedade de Abastecimento de Água e Saneamento de Campinas (SANASA), in 2019. Main SDGs: 6 – Drinking Water and Sanitation, 9 – Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure and 11 – Sustainable Cities and Communities.
I inteceleri:
Founded in 2013 in Pará, Inteceleri is a startup from Pará that was born from the initiative of parents and teachers who had children and students with difficulties in learning mathematics in a traditional format, a national reality. The company develops teaching methodologies, supported by digital educational games and virtual reality equipment, which are used by teachers and students. All content is developed to associate the problems proposed in amschool environment to the student's daily life, favoring the development of mathematical sense in an interactive and playful way, focusing on the student's protagonism. One of its great successes, the Matematicando application, facilitates learning through colored tables, and encourages the improvement of mental calculation and logical reasoning. The company is even qualified as a partner of Google for Education. Inteceleri has already benefited over 249,000 students and over 8,000 teachers in 14 cities in the North and Northeast of Brazil. Main SDGs: 4 – Quality Education, 10 – Reduction of Inequalities.
The 1st Round of Collective Loans has as a strategic partner the Sabin Institute, as development partners to CapRate, a Impact Workshop, a TozziniFreire Advogados and the Vieira Rezende Advogados, and the support of Money and Conscience Network in distribution. To learn more about the business and participate as an investor, visit www.emprestimocoletivo.net.
