Capitalplus Exchange Corporation

Programs: Capacity building: this program builds financial institutions' internal capability to expand services to underserved populations. Capplus uses a transparent and client-driven process, ensuring that clients' capacity building needs are met and the new practices, policies, and products are embedded within the organization. Typical areas of capacity building include: lending product and methodology management, risk management, human resource management, new product development and innovation, pioneering new partnerships for services' delivery, and improved operations and enhanced efficiencies, as well as strengthening the financial capabilities of their clients. Client financial institutions are required to pay for a small portion of the cost. At this time, capacity building services are focused on equipping financial institutions to serve the affordable education sector and to provide digital financial services to clients, in addition to our ongoing efforts to expand small businesses' access to credit. During 2017, capplus provided services to twenty two microfinance and small business banks.

social enterprise finance - education markets impact initiative (emii): starting in 2015, capplus began exploring an additional strategy to achieve our objective of increasing economic opportunity, equity, jobs and incomes: equipping financial institutions to provide tailored services to affordable small, privately-owned businesses that provide a social good (like health, education, water and sanitation etc), starting first with low-fee private schools. These schools are educating millions of low-income children in africa and southeast asia where government schools cannot keep up with demand and where schools - government and private - may not be providing a quality education. In response, capplus is establishing the education markets impact initiative (emii) to build the capacity of financial institutions to provide financial services to the private schools in a way that also drives improvements in education outcomes and catalyzes a market transformation so private schools will no longer be financially excluded. Capplus has verified that thousands of schools serve low-income families, are severely underbanked and represent a significant market opportunity for banks, whilst meeting the needs of affordable school proprietors and the parents who send their children to these schools. In addition, capplus has met with scores of bankers, many of whom stated that they need new sources of patient and affordable capital to make loans to schools on terms the schools can afford. For this reason, capplus is establishing a for-profit entity to receive funding including debt from impact investors that will be utilized to provide financing to financial institutions (directly or indirectly) for the purpose of providing credit to affordable private schools and related education markets. The for-profit entity's sole purpose is entirely to serve the mission and development impact objectives of capplus with debt simply being another tool to catalyze and accelerate impact to achieve capplus' mission: providing capital to expand credit to smes, who in turn create jobs and reduce poverty. In the case of schools, the link between education and increased incomes is well-established: globally, people's incomes increase by an average of 10% for each year of completed education, with higher rates of return for women and in low-income countries. Also, schools create jobs for teachers and workers, as well as many other jobs in the education value chain, e. G. In the construction industry as new school classrooms are being built. Education also helps prepare children to better jobs and opportunities in the workforce.

partnerships: capplus works closely with organizations that share its mission to serve small businesses, micro-enterprise, underserved communities and businesses that provide a social good in developing and transitional markets. Capplus' partners include foundations, research institutions, education initiatives, ngos, and investment funds among others. These partnerships allow capplus to explore new frontiers in sme, social finance and leverage joined capabilities to achieve more powerful impact where our missions intersect.

due diligence and diagnostics: on behalf of partners such as equator capital partners' shorecap funds, capplus conducts due diligence on prospective investees. Diagnostics are very similar; both assess an institution's strengths and weaknesses and establish the priorities to be addressed in the technical assistance plan. They are a distinct part of the capacity building work undertaken by capplus. During 2017 needs assessment visits were conducted at several institutions capplus works with, including banks in asia, africa and the middle east. Peer exchange: peer exchange promotes quick dissemination and adoption of innovations and good practices that support poverty reduction in developing economies through financial institutions. Knowledge is exchanged primarily through webinars, sessions at conferences or meetings. In 2017, 393 participants from 141 organizations attended capplus webinars or conference sessions. Performance and impact measurement: performance measurement tracks capplus' impact on its clients, such as client's lending to small businesses, women entrepreneurs, improvements in delinquency rates, and other indicators. Donors are raising their expectations for impact tracking and new standards are evolving in the industry; this activity will grow considerably in importance and scale. In 2017, capplus began designing its metrics and system for tracking the impact of credit available as a result of emii upon the schools' enrollment, learning outcomes, and support for women and girls.