EthicHub

WHAT IF YOU COULD MAKE MONEY, WHILST MAKING A DIFFERENCE?

We connect small farmers in emerging economies with lenders and buyers around the world in order to spark their economic growth. Through EthicHub, lenders provide farmers with affordable loans. This means that as there’s no middle man to split the prices with, farmers can afford to have slightly lower price points for their products – which also benefits those who buy their products. Small farmers can then receive the money they need with manageable interest rates and trade their crops at fair prices.

This means they can build a credit history to prove they’re trustworthy, which further spurs their economic growth. All of our farmers also commit to social, economic and environmental best practices for sustainable farming.

Our mission is to improve their standard of living by increasing productivity and raising their income and savings. Everyone wins with EthicHub – a sustainable economy must be profitable to all parties.

FUNDING WOULD ALLOW US TO…

Funding would help us accelerate the onboarding of new farmers. Once the loans are paid back, the money will be used again for funding new projects. This will then benefit more farmers and also increase our development, which will generate further impact.

A total of 120 farmers have already received over $140,000. Financial support from investors creates new opportunities for farmers to access new markets, with fairer prices for their crops.

I WAS INSPIRED BY THE WIDENING ECONOMICAL GAP

I lived between Europe and Latin America. This allowed me to see first-hand the problems local people experience, and we saw an opportunity for a solution with mutual benefits. We couldn’t sit back and keep watching the widening gap between economies and decided to do something about it. We wanted to prove it can be done, so that more entrepreneurs would follow this path.

WHAT’S YOUR BLEND FOR SUCCESS?

We blend heart and benefit together. When we started, it was difficult for people to understand our model because there was a doubt whether it was possible to help and get a benefit out of it. I still remember someone telling me, “you can’t be social and profitable at the same time – I either donate or invest.”

But soon they agreed with us that mutual benefit is a much more powerful tool for financial inclusion than altruism alone. We told them that most of the 1.7 billion unbanked people in the world are small farmers. Now EthicHub lenders are using both their hearts and money to make a difference to those people.