Our Approach







“As an investor in and beneficiary of its ‘green’ lending activities, our company remains grateful for Root Capital’s work, as we believe its lending model addresses an important need that comes from the coffee producers themselves.”

Michael Dupee
Director of Social Responsibility
Green Mountain Coffee Roasters












"Root Capital goes well beyond the delivery of credit to promote financial capacity in the countryside in a way that comprehensively builds rural enterprises into “bankable” businesses."

Maria Teresa Villanueva
Project Team Leader
Inter-American Development Bank

Our Vision

We envision thriving rural communities where small-scale producers have access to markets and financial services to lift themselves out of poverty while strengthening the health of our planet. We pursue this vision through a three- pronged strategy:

Finance: Innovating Rural Finance

We lend to small grassroots businesses that are locked out of the local banking system and have few alternatives for affordable credit. We provide financing for both short-term working capital loans and longer-term investments.

For many of our loans, we use future sales contracts from companies like Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Marks & Spencer, Starbucks, and Whole Foods as a form of collateral. When natural products are shipped, the buyer pays Root Capital directly for interest and principal payments. Because of this factoring model, we can be confident that a loan will be repaid (indeed, our repayment rate is over 99%.) By moving beyond traditional approaches to collateral, we are proving the business case for lending to the rural “unbankable”.

Root Capital’s Model


1. Order goods
2. Make loan with purchase order as collateral
3. Ship goods
4. Pay for goods
5. Remit payment, net of loan principal and interest

Advise: Building Capacity for Capital

We are uniquely positioned as a social lender to provide financial training to grassroots businesses, enabling them to enter the lending process or strengthen their ability to raise incremental capital. Root Capital’s Financial Advisory Services program (FAS) designs, tests, and packages financial training materials for potential and existing borrowers. Our curriculum also equips rural financial managers with the skills and capacity to build and run their businesses. Through pre-loan technical assistance and comprehensive financial management training, we are able to streamline and accelerate the financing process and measurably improve the financial management of participating businesses.

Catalyze: Fostering the Field

We are leveraging our experience, knowledge, and industry relationships to catalyze the creation of a new capital class bridging the “missing middle” between microfinance and corporate banking. We collaborate with global buyers, banks, and like-minded development entrepreneurs to spread finance innovations and social business practices throughout the developing world.