Approach

Technical assistance for SMEs

Aceli builds the addressable demand for financing and bridges the gap between capital supply and demand.

Tailored TA & matchmaking

Aceli offers pre-investment technical assistance to early-stage agricultural SMEs (annual revenues of $50k-500k) to strengthen their business and financial management capacity so they can qualify for and manage financing. Aceli works with a marketplace of partners to provide tailored advisory and facilitate matchmaking with lenders for SMEs that have graduated from the TA program.

“Before the training we did not understand how to expand our business, but after being trained, we opened our eyes and are ready to work with financial institutions.”

TA participant

Rwanda

Examples from a recent TA cohort where 14 of the 35 graduating SMEs accessed financing totaling $1.3M within 6 months:

A Tanzanian processor of sunflower oil with an annual revenue of $163k that sources raw material from 750 smallholder farmers and has 5 full-time staff. This business accessed a loan of $45k for business expansion and factory maintenance from a commercial bank.

A Ugandan distributor of agricultural inputs with annual revenue of $320k, 5,000 farmer customers and 22 full-time staff. This business accessed a loan of $55k for working capital from a commercial bank.

A Kenyan producer and supplier of certified seed potato with annual revenue of $42k, 4,000 farmer customers and 4 full-time staff. This enterprise accessed a loan of $30k from an impact fund focused on women and youth-led businesses.