While traveling in Mexico in the mid-1990s,William Foote encountered a group of vanilla growers who were unable to secure the credit necessary to allow them access to international markets. Foregoing his place at Harvard Business School, Foote returned to Boston and launched the non-profit social investment fund, Root Capital, in 1999 to lend to small and medium-sized rural businesses in the developing world.Considered too small and risky for mainstream banks and too large for micro-finance, these grassroots businesses are caught in what Foote labels the “missing middle.” The innovative Root Capital model is focused on addressing this market failure in poor, environmentally vulnerable rural locations in Africa and Latin America by lending capital, delivering financial training, and strengthening market connections for small and growing agricultural businesses. These loans not only improve incomes but also provide food-security to low-income communities. By mid-2011, the organization had distributed more than $320 million in credit to 350 businesses (with a 99% repayment rate). These loans have improved the incomes of more than 450,000 rural households in 31 countries. 
Website: http://www.rootcapital.org/ A thriving market
The vanilla credit and the patient capital
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