Blended financing for nutritious food

In low-income countries, 70-90% of all food consumed is produced, processed, transported, and sold by Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). However, high risk and cost of financing has led to a shortage of finance for agri-food SMEs, particularly for small-ticket SMEs operating in local food markets (vs. export commodity chains) and for early-stage investments in developing new business models and product offerings that can address demand for nutritious foods or contribute to nature-positive solutions in food systems. In Africa alone, there is an annual financing gap of about USD 100 billion for agri-food enterprises with needs between USD 25,000 and 5 million. Blended finance facilities combine concessional financing and commercial funding. Development organizations or philanthropic foundation, provides the concessional catalytic investment to de-risk the investment portfolio and provide a capital in various forms (i.e., first-loss and patient capital, subordinated debt, guarantees, Opex coverage), which then makes it possible to attack other investors with lower risk targets. As part of the de-risking strategy blending financing facilities can provide technical assistance to address capacity gaps the SMEs may have in order to grow their business in a sustainable manner. Impact investment in nutritious food is a new innovation, where generally acceptable KPIs standards and impact evaluation methods still need to be established.