Social Entrepreneur: Conscious Companies | Benefit Corporations | Impact Investing

Anushka Ratnayake of myAgro uses a combination of savings, inputs and training to increase the income of smallholder farmers. As a social entrepreneur, Anushka Ratnayake has seen startup challenges that are not common in other regions. For example, less than a year after launching myAgro, an armed conflict broke out in northern Mali. A group associated with Al-Qaeda set up a new state in Norther Mali. In response, the French military launched an operation and ousted the rebels. Anushka Ratnayake, the founder of myAgro was an early employee with Kiva. There she learned about the power of microfinance to impact poverty. She also worked with One Acre Fund where her job was to develop a repayment process for smallholder farmers. She heard from the farmers that they wanted to prepay their loan, or in other words, they were asking for help in saving money for the future. Seventy percent of the population of Mali are smallholder farmers, most living on less than two dollars per day. The farmers have seasonal incom