PlusPlus & P4G, a partnership for growth

One of the first partners to invest in PlusPlus was P4G. P4G is the Partnership for Green Growth and the Global Goals 2030, a global network aiming to drive green economic growth through scaling up innovative public-private partnerships. As part of P4G’s 2019 global competition of Scale-Up Partnerships led by P4G, PlusPlus was 1 of 7 selected partners to receive a grant of 1 million USD, which was officially handed over on 23 September 2019, in New York.

These seven selected public-private partnerships in the 2019 global competition all work collaboratively to advance innovative sustainable solutions to address persistent global challenges. Like the PlusPlus crowdfunding platform, which aims to ensure and further foster food security, entrepreneurship and employment in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

In view of this new partnership between PlusPlus and P4G, a brief introduction is in place. We interviewed Robyn McGuckin, P4G’s Director of Partnerships, who provided answers to our main questions.

What is P4G exactly? Who are the drivers behind this Partnership for Green Growth and the Global Goals?

Robyn McGuckin: "P4G is a global initiative with the mission to identify and accelerate innovative public-private partnerships. We have an influential network of 12 country partners and six organizational partners that bring a global reach of 1 billion people. P4G takes a venture capital approach to investing in commercially-viable solutions that can be replicated and scaled to drive sustainable economic growth. We bring together business, government and civil society organizations to advance market-based solutions that can have a tangible impact on our country partners’ progress toward our five priority Sustainable Development Goals and their climate action targets. P4G was created in collaboration with a number of international partners and country partners. Our core funders are Denmark and the Netherlands."

Why was P4G established and what are its main goals?

"P4G was established to bring transformative and commercially-viable green growth models of change through public-private partnerships. It was created with the fundamental understanding that no one sector or industry can create replicable and scalable sustainable change, and therefore a hands-on partnerships approach is one of the best ways forward to achieve actionable impact.

We occupy a unique space in this green growth, climate change landscape by acting as a bridge between investors and governments to enable sustainable economic growth. The goal of our solutions-driven, bottom-up approach is to deliver tangible impact at speed and scale through our partnerships working in our five priority areas: food and agriculture, water, clean energy, cities and the circular economy. We are committed to curating a strong pipeline of investment-ready partnerships and already have a diverse portfolio of almost 50 partnerships working in sectors like renewable energy, sustainable agriculture and zero emission transport.

We support our partnerships in achieving their ambitious goals through focused co-creation of plans to rapidly accelerate the partnerships toward their goals through outcomes-based, stakeholder-driven convenings. Our high-level convenings are attended by Heads of State and CEOs, and give our partnerships a global platform to advance their goals. P4G is also committed to creating strong knowledge sharing networks to rapidly advance transformative market change."

PlusPlus shares these goals. What is it P4G values most about PlusPlus?

"Plus Plus is an important P4G partnership, with a model that will transform the ability of small to medium agri-businesses in the developing world to access affordable finance. At present, these smaller and more nascent businesses only have limited access to finance at very high interest rates, making it extremely difficult for entrepreneurs to address critical gaps in the local agricultural supply chains and contribute to the overall food security of their family, region and country. By enabling crowd funders in the developed world countries to place investments in this sector, leveraged and securitised by large development finance institutes (DFIs) and donors, PlusPlus will help to fill this huge gap in developing world economies marketplaces, contributing to sustainable growth and proving out a model that could be scaled and replicated with massive impact potential."

PlusPlus aims to connect entrepreneurs with a crowd of investors. How can we, P4G and PlusPlus, further strengthen each other?

"Ensuring that the investment of the crowd funders, who are individuals like you and me, is placed with viable and beneficial entrepreneurs and that the investment is protected and leveraged for greater impact, is key to making this model work.  By acting together as a partnership, PlusPlus and P4G - along with P4G’s partner DFIs, governments, and key institutional investors –  can create an innovative new solution to solve the capital gap faced by small to medium sized entrepreneurs in the developing world’s critical agricultural sector.  Additionally, P4G can raise the profile of PlusPlus and their successes at key global convenings that will help to leverage further interest and investment.  Finally, through our innovative P4G co-creation process, we can look to continue to advance this model in both size and scale to transform the agricultural sector in the developing world."

Together with P4G and other partners, PlusPlus aims to raise funds from thousands of private investors to fund businesses that could ultimately benefit thousands of small farmers. Together with these investors, we can boost the expansion of many scalable agri-food businesses that would ultimately contribute to sustainable economic development and the fight against hunger and poverty. Together, we give money meaning….