17

Finding innovative funding

How inspiring women founders and investors are turning the tide

Overcoming gender barriers and supporting female farmers in Tanzania

Overcoming gender barriers and supporting female farmers in Tanzania

Interview with Brigitha Faustin, Founder and CEO of OBRI Tanzania

OBRI Tanzania works with women smallholder farmers to produce sunflower cooking oil. This not only helps women increase their income, but also provides low-income consumers with an affordable alternative to re-using cooking oil.


What challenges did you face in obtaining funding for OBRI Tanzania and how did you overcome them?

The biggest challenge was finance and accounting knowledge. Every funding decision I came across involved numbers, so I relied on my finance manager for most of my financial presentations. I had to take extra financial classes online, and I am still learning about some of the key accounting and financial management aspects. What I have learned is that my numbers count!

Do you feel that being a woman made a difference in trying to obtain funding? If yes, can you describe how?

Yes! Some funders are specifically looking for entrepreneurs that can spend 100 per cent of their time on their companies. Once, I was in a presentation with a potential angel investor. When I mentioned that I was a mother of one and expecting another baby, his company preferred to invest in a man-led company. They said it was more likely to generate a quick return on investment because the founder had more time to work on his company.

Farmers on a sunflower field
OBRI Tanzania empowers female smallholder farmers. Image: OBRI Tanzania

How does the regulatory framework in Tanzania encourage women’s entrepreneurship?

The regulatory framework in Tanzania is very supportive of women entrepreneurs, from tax issues to company registration and working premises, especially in the agri-food industry. For example, there are special premises where entrepreneurs in the food processing space can rent at lower prices and receive regular trainings and mentorship support under the Small Industries Development Organisation (SIDO), a government initiative. Women are highly encouraged to use these premises as they start their small businesses.

Still, there are a few areas in which more could be done, especially regarding targeted funding opportunities for women-led companies at an early growth stage. Most enablers do not consider women as a special target group. For example, they require collateral to access loans, which most women do not have. Even financial institutions that do offer special SME windows or specific savings products for women often require assets as collateral. Therefore, some of the traditional values and customary laws have to be revisited to enable women to own land and other assets.

In your Impact Story, you mention that women have to work extra hard to balance entrepreneurship and family life. How do you deal with this challenge?

I personally have to work extra hard every day for a good balance between work and family. Being a mother of two young babies, I had to learn how to delegate some of my work. I set up a support system both at work and at home, built on a culture of trust. Recently, I have learned to say NO to tasks that are not beneficial. I have also learned to set my day-to-day priorities, stick to the plan, and spend the remaining hours with my family.

sunflower oil
OBRI produces healthy and affordable cooking oil.
Image: OBRI Tanzania

What role, in your opinion, do men and the community play in supporting women in entrepreneurship?

Men, and the community in general, play a huge role in supporting women entrepreneurs. They should provide direct support to women in their daily household as well as work activities. They need to understand that their support will make women more productive and give them extra time to participate in activities outside their work and family chores.

What kind of distinct barriers do women smallholders face in managing farming as a business? How does OBRI help women overcome these barriers?

Their biggest challenge is market access. Most smallholder farmers do not have any marketing skills and depend on middlemen to sell their produce. As a result, they earn little and end up farming for subsistence. They hardly grow. OBRI provides direct market access to women smallholder farmers, cuts out the middlemen and ensures that farmers are fairly paid.

What recommendations can you give to other entrepreneurs?

  1. Believe in yourself: Don’t let the imposter syndrome stop you – the second-guessing, the fear of failure, and the feeling of wanting everything to be perfect before you start. Start where you are, with what you have, and work on improving your idea every day. Don’t be afraid to take BIG risks!
  2. Fail fast and often: Don’t be afraid of failure. Failing fast and often will make you stronger, and that’s how you will grow. Always take failure as your most valuable lesson and keep improving every day.
  3. Ask for regular feedback: Yes, you are the one who knows your business best. But to improve and to avoid unnecessary mistakes, ask for regular feedback from your team, your friends, and the people you trust. Choose carefully whom you ask for feedback, though. The people who are supportive and really want you to grow will be more willing to listen and give you a realistic opinion.
Brigitha Faustin

Brigitha Faustin is s the founder and CEO of OBRI Tanzania (www.obritanzania.com), an agri-food company which processes and supplies high-quality, healthy, and affordable sunflower cooking oil to low-income families in Tanzania. The company works directly with thousands of local smallholder farmers, mostly women. OBRI has a business model that lowers the cost of cooking oil to consumers by eliminating middlemen, all while reducing post-harvest waste and increasing the incomes of partner farmers. Brigitha serves as a Youth ambassador on Sustainable Development Goals and has won the 2021 Sankalp Africa Award, which recognizes and awards high impact enterprises in the African region.

Interview

Choosing the right type of funding to make a lasting impact on female artisans

Reese Fernandez-Ruiz discusses scaling and funding for inclusive businesses and how Rags2Riches supports women artisans beyond providing livelihoods in the Philippines.
Hong Anh Dao
Table of contents

graphic summary

GRAPHIC SUMMARY

Learn more about inspiring women entrepreneurs and innovative investors by reading this seventeenth edition of the online magazine on Inclusive Business! The illustration was developed by Christopher Malapitan, a visual practitioner and trainer…

Christopher Malapitan

editorial

Optimism and frustration, celebration and caution: the rising tide of women entrepreneurs taking their place in business and finance

In her editorial, Caroline Ashley discusses why advances in funding for women entrepreneurs provide reasons for both optimism and caution, focusing on both the vibrancy of innovation and new solutions and the work that still remains to close the gap.

Caroline Ashley

feature story

Finding innovative funding: Unlocking capital for women founders

Women founders are building inclusive and innovative businesses that serve the traditionally underserved around the globe. However, many women still struggle to receive the capital they need to grow their businesses. This issue of CLUED-iN features several groundbreaking women business founders, from Ajaita Shah who developed an all-woman sales force in rural India, to Brigitha Faustin, whose sunflower oil is produced mainly by women in Tanzania. It includes a range of insights from entrepreneurs, gender smart investment experts, investors, and women capital allocators, who examine what it will take to narrow the gender funding gap and support women founders around the globe.

Alexandra Harris

Talking #InclusiveBiz No. 3: Impacting the growth trajectory of women founders through innovative initiatives, such as Global Scale Up X

In the third episode of the iBAN podcast Talking #InclusiveBiz, Susann Tischendorf from iBAN speaks with Jona Repishti and Amanda Epting, Managers at MIT D-Lab, about their inspiring work on solving crucial global gender financing challenges and about the importance of incorporating inclusive innovation processes into the work of practitioners. In particular, they highlight why innovative storytelling approaches, like the one of the Global Scale Up X Instagram channel recently launched by MIT D-Lab and iBAN, are important in helping smooth the entrepreneurial journeys of female entrepreneurs.

Why we need multiple flavours of capital for inclusive gender-smart business

Suzanne Biegel, a global leader in gender smart investment, explains how women entrepreneurs can benefit from multiple types of funding. She also discusses the role of storytelling in making the business case for investing in women.

“How much ease can we create?”: Developing financial solutions for rural women

Chetna Gala Sinha founded Mann Deshi Bank and Foundation to help a woman blacksmith in rural India save for a tarpaulin cover. In her interview, she discusses how new financial solutions and credit rating tools should be tailored to women-owned businesses.

Why traditional investment indicators don’t always apply

Nathalie Aldana, who founded a business in Sweden selling dried fruits and jams sourced in Colombia, reveals why inclusive businesses may value performance indicators that don’t directly fit with traditional investment models.

Shifting capital towards women’s economic empowerment

Jessica Espinoza, Chair of the 2X Challenge, explains why investing in funds and platforms that invest in women through gender-smart business is one of the best ways to scale the impact of capital.

Overcoming gender barriers and supporting female farmers in Tanzania

Many investors expect you to spend 100 per cent of your time on your company, says Brigitha Faustin, founder and CEO of OBRI Tanzania. In this interview, she shares how she balanced life and family and how the Tanzanian government supports women founders.

Choosing the right type of funding to make a lasting impact on female artisans

Reese Fernandez-Ruiz discusses scaling and funding for inclusive businesses and how Rags2Riches supports women artisans beyond providing livelihoods in the Philippines.

Creating more tables, not just seats at the table: Narrowing the gender funding gap by investing in women capital allocators

In Africa, there are many startups led by women, but these enterprises often have trouble accessing finance. In her interview, Adesuwa Okunbo Rhodes shares how Aruwa Capital Management opens up funding and opportunities for women entrepreneurs.

Investing in women is smart business and key to poverty alleviation at scale

Ajaita Shah discusses why investing in women has a strong impact on poverty alleviation, and how she has empowered a network of women sales agents in rural India through her enterprise, Frontier Markets.

Empowering women-focused businesses by tying investment to impact assessment

Robert Kraybill explains how IIX developed the first Women’s Livelihood Bond which limits risk for investors and ties investment to impact on women’s livelihoods in multiple countries.

Voices of global female entrepreneurs

Which challenges have female founders tackled, what have they experienced, and what have they learned? In this Voices piece, four successful women entrepreneurs featured in the Impact Stories series share their stories.