ProducePay-Equit (IFC-43528)

Regions
  • Latin America and Caribbean
Geographic location where the impacts of the investment may be experienced.
Financial Institutions
  • International Finance Corporation (IFC)
International, regional and national development finance institutions. Many of these banks have a public interest mission, such as poverty reduction.
Project Status
Active
Stage of the project cycle. Stages vary by development bank and can include: pending, approval, implementation, and closed or completed.
Bank Risk Rating
A
Environmental and social categorization assessed by the development bank as a measure of the planned project’s environmental and social impacts. A higher risk rating may require more due diligence to limit or avoid harm to people and the environment. For example, "A" or "B" are risk categories where "A" represents the highest amount of risk. Results will include projects that specifically recorded a rating, all other projects are marked ‘U’ for "Undisclosed."
Voting Date
Apr 5, 2021
Date when project documentation and funding is reviewed by the Board for consideration and approval. Some development banks will state a "board date" or "decision date." When funding approval is obtained, the legal documents are accepted and signed, the implementation phase begins.
Borrower
PRODUCE PAY INC.
A public entity (government or state-owned) provided with funds or financial support to manage and/or implement a project.
Sectors
  • Agriculture and Forestry
  • Finance
The service or industry focus of the investment. A project can have several sectors.
Investment Type(s)
Equity
The categories of the bank investment: loan, grant, guarantee, technical assistance, advisory services, equity and fund.
Investment Amount (USD)
$ 8.00 million
Value listed on project documents at time of disclosure. If necessary, this amount is converted to USD ($) on the date of disclosure. Please review updated project documents for more information.
Project Cost (USD)
$ 35.00 million
Value listed on project documents at time of disclosure. If necessary, this amount is converted to USD ($) on the date of disclosure. Please review updated project documents for more information.
Primary Source

Original disclosure @ IFC website

Updated in EWS Mar 9, 2021

Disclosed by Bank Mar 3, 2021

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Project Description
If provided by the financial institution, the Early Warning System Team writes a short summary describing the purported development objective of the project and project components. Review the complete project documentation for a detailed description.

The project consists of an equity investment for a minority stake in ProducePay (“PP”, or the “Company”), a commerce enablement platform focused on the produce market. The Company’s services are primarily targeted to LAC-based farmers who export fresh fruit and vegetables to the US. IFC is proposing US$8 million in equity preferred financing to ProducePay to support its operations and expansion.

 

1) Increased Access to Financing for Farmers: IFC expects that the Project will increase access to non-collateralized financing for produce farmers, primarily from Mexico but also from other LAC countries for export to North America. 2) Contribution to Market Creation - Integration: IFC expects that the Project will contribute to an increased integration of LAC agribusinesses to the U.S. market, as it contributes to the growth of an innovative business model fostering flexible working capital solutions for produce farmers to finance pre-harvest investments - not only in Mexico, Peru, Chile, but also in more underserved countries in Central America (e.g. Guatemala, Costa Rica).

Investment Description
Here you can find a list of individual development financial institutions that finance the project.

IFC is proposing to invest US$8 million in an up to US$35 million Series C equity funding round.

Private Actor Relationship
A Private Actor is a non-governmental body or entity that is the borrower or client of a development project, which can include corporations, private equity and banks. This describes the private actors and their roles in relation to the project, when private actor information is disclosed or has been further researched.

GENERAL
Prospective investors in the current funding round (in addition to IFC) include the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).

 

IFC
1) Risk Mitigation, Trusted Partnership: IFC brings about a unique capacity to PP, as it possesses a combination of expertise in Fintech and agri-business areas. With its experience in agri-financing in emerging markets, IFC's due diligence and participation in developing PP's expansion strategy will provide comfort to prospective investors with respect to the validity of PP's business model and strategy. 2) Standard-setting: IFC will help PP implement an Environmental and Social Management System (ESMS) to equip the company with the technical capacity to identify, manage and mitigate E&S risks and impacts derived from its activities.

 

Private Actors Description
A Private Actor is a non-governmental body or entity that is the borrower or client of a development project, which can include corporations, private equity and banks. This describes the private actors and their roles in relation to the project, when private actor information is disclosed or has been further researched.

PRODUCE PAY
Produce Pay Inc. is a privately owned company headquartered in Los Angeles, CA. Current major shareholders include Pablo Borquez (CEO & Founder), CoVenture (New York-based venture capital firm) and Anterra Capital (a global agri-tech venture capital firm).

Private Actor 1 Private Actor 1 Role Private Actor 1 Sector Relation Private Actor 2 Private Actor 2 Role Private Actor 2 Sector
International Finance Corporation (IFC) Buyer Finance invests in Produce Pay Inc. Client Agriculture and Forestry

Contact Information
This section aims to support the local communities and local CSO to get to know which stakeholders are involved in a project with their roles and responsibilities. If available, there may be a complaint office for the respective bank which operates independently to receive and determine violations in policy and practice. Independent Accountability Mechanisms receive and respond to complaints. Most Independent Accountability Mechanisms offer two functions for addressing complaints: dispute resolution and compliance review.

ACCESS TO INFORMATION

You can submit a request for information disclosure at: https://disclosures.ifc.org/#/inquiries

If you believe that your request for information from IFC has been unreasonably denied, or that this Policy has been interpreted incorrectly, you can submit a complaint at the link above to IFC's Access to Information Policy Advisor, who reports directly to IFC's Executive Vice President.

ACCOUNTABILITY MECHANISM OF IFC/MIGA

The Compliance Advisor Ombudsman (CAO) is the independent complaint mechanism and fact-finding body for people who believe they are likely to be, or have been, adversely affected by an IFC or MIGA- financed project. If you submit a complaint to the CAO, they may assist you in resolving a dispute with the company and/or investigate to assess whether the IFC is following its own policies and procedures for preventing harm to people or the environment. If you want to submit a complaint electronically, you can email the CAO at CAO@worldbankgroup.org You can learn more about the CAO and how to file a complaint at http://www.cao-ombudsman.org

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