The US government’s Agency for International Development recently announced it has budgeted USD 6 million to support the financial inclusion of micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises owned by people in Guatemala who are members of one or more of the following groups: women, young people and indigenous citizens. Elements of the program are aimed at “enhancing financial literacy… and helping financial service providers reach underserved rural markets with better, tailored products.” The goals include to boost savings, investments in agriculture, food security and access to digital financial services. Another part of the program is to help people who receive remittances to leverage these funds to meet community goals. The effort is part of a project called Feed the Future, which is active in 20 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean.

This event includes afternoons free for networking with sessions in the mornings and evenings on topics such as embedded finance, digital IDs, public policy, AI, collaboration and experience sharing among startups. The fee to attend is USD 1,250. You may seek more details by emailing tickets@finnovista.com or calling +56 36 66 48 12.

Techreo, a digital financial services firm serving 480,000 people in Mexico and Bolivia, recently raised USD 3.4 million in bridge funding to support its expansion into Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and the US. The funders are the US-based impact investor Creation Investments and the Mexican venture capital firm G2 Momentum.

The head of Creation’s investment team in Mexico, Amadeo Ibarra, described Techreo’s app as “uniquely designed to serve people at the base of the economic pyramid." Its offerings include financial services, financial education and business solutions. Techreo was founded in 2022.

This event offers panel presentations on impact investing, networking via “speed dating,” pitches by women entrepreneurs and awards recognizing success in working toward the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The fee to attend is USD 1,200. For further inform­ation, you may call +52 56 0455 55 or email flii@nvgroup.org.

Through April 2024, the US-based cooperative Equal Exchange is offering notes that promise an annual return of 3% through 2027. Retail investors can purchase the notes on Crowdfund Mainstreet, a website owned by the US-based public benefit corporation MiTec. Equal Exchange, which is seeking to raise USD 1.5 million through the offering, sells coffee, chocolate, bananas and other food products on a wholesale basis. It sources these products from small-scale farmers in Latin America and Africa, whom it supports with services such as pre-harvest financing.