The power of the crowd

Eight years of making an impact with Lendahand

“It’s tempting to define and measure impact in a way that makes you look good. But if we want to take impact investing seriously, we need to tell the honest story. Impact goals are our north star. They dictate how we run the company and do business to relentlessly pursue our mission to fight poverty in emerging markets by investing in people and businesses.

When we launched the official Lendahand website in 2013, no one had heard about the UN Sustainable Development Goals, or was doing ‘impact investing’. That itchy feeling that you can do well by doing good with your money, has turned into a global movement and a sense of urgency.

But what exactly is impact? And, how do you make impact? This is Lendahands first Annual Impact Report. These are the outcomes we have achieved so far, and of which we are extremely proud, while we continuously try to improve on our impact reporting.

We owe so much to our crowd-investors, who put their money at risk to create a positive impact. We want to contribute to a better world, and it starts with measuring what really matters. I truly hope you enjoy this report.”

Koen The - CEO & Co-founder Lendahand

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Barbaro is a creative branding studio founded in San Francisco. We come up with strong and distinct brand identities based on research and creative Barbaro is a creative branding studio founded in San Francisco. We come up wicreative innovation.

How we make impact

The ripple effect of inclusive finance for SMEs in emerging markets.

Interested to learn more about how we measure impact? Head to the Lendahand impact framework report.

Impact in figures

Here’s what our investors already accomplished:

Financial impact

Total amount disbursed by Lendahand, Energise Africa excluded.

Number of crowdfunding campaigns funded by Lendahand.

Number of active companies in Lendahand’s investment portfolio.

Proportion of women-owned businesses in Lendahand’s investment portfolio.

Number of countries investments were made in indicated time period.

Number of active investors on Lendahand.

Social impact

Number of direct jobs and indirect jobs created within or by portfolio companies.

An estimate of the positive impact perceived by beneficiaries reached through portfolio companies.

Access to clean energy

Number of solar home systems installed in households.

Number of solar systems installed for productive use.

Number of biogas digesters installed at agribusinesses.

Number of people who ever lived in a house with an improved off-grid energy source (i.e. solar).

Metric tons of carbon dioxide averted. Based on estimated reduction in kerosene lantern use, per off-grid solar product.

"If investing is about securing the future, then the success of an investment should not be measured by financial return only, but also by the impact it creates on the planet and people."

Koen The - CEO & Co-founder Lendahand

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Themes

Gender Lens Investing

Clean Energy

Financial Institutions

Agriculture

The Power of Partnerships

Many SMEs in emerging markets are still facing a financing gap, estimated at $5.2 trillion annually by the International Finance Corporation (IFC). With enough private capital available in developed economies there is still potential to close the funding gap.

There is a growing need for a financial inclusive ecosystem providing SMEs in emerging markets access to useful and affordable financial products and services that meet their needs, delivered in a responsible and sustainable way. This requires actions from and collaboration between different stakeholders, including policymakers, regulators, donors, and financial

service providers.

Only then SMEs can generate sustainable income and jobs, build thriving local economies, contribute to better livelihoods, and enable people to find a way out

of poverty.

Put your money where your mouth is; the mentality of the city of Rotterdam where Lendahand is based is inherent in the company’s DNA. It translated into taking steps in building strategic partnerships as founding partners of two crowdfunding platforms for impact investing:

Energise Africa, a UK-based crowdfunding platform, established in 2017 together with Ethex, focuses on providing debt capital to clean energy companies in Sub-Saharan Africa.
PlusPlus, a Dutch-based crowdfunding platform, established in 2019, focuses on providing debt capital for agri-food companies in emerging markets. Founded together with Solidaridad, Cordaid,

and Truvalu.

Forming the world’s largest impact crowdfunding group together enables collaboration to leverage impact, share knowledge, and continue to build new partnerships to grow the financial inclusive ecosystem.

Lendahand is furthermore investing in other partnerships to support achieving its impact driven mission:

With KfW and TCX a hedge facility has been developed to enable financing of SMEs in local currency. It eliminates the high risk SMEs are exposed to when selling goods and services domestically in local currency, while borrowing in foreign currency.
Partnerships in cofinancing with impact investing companies AlphaMundi and Symbiotics facilitate growth of Lendahand’s investment portfolio with a risk-sharing approach.

Exploring institutional investments and innovative de-risking approaches to leverage crowd investments. SIDA being a first partner to provide a first loss facility for clean energy projects at Lendahand and UK Aid at Energise Africa.
With USAID a current focus on enhancing financial inclusion for women-led SMEs is taking place.
P4G is funder and a committed co-creation partner in scaling the Energise Africa and PlusPlus platforms.