The “SME Finance Virtual Marketplace” is an online match-making platform that promotes partnership and collaboration between members of the SME Finance Forum, especially financial institutions, fintech companies and development finance institutions/ investors.  The virtual Marketplace is powered by GlobalLinker, an AI powered ‘Digital Ecosystem’ offering SMEs a range of services to build digital presence including e-commerce. 

How does the Marketplace operate?

Sixth Marketplace Session

This sixth marketplace session, scheduled on Wednesday, January 12th from 8 am - 9:00 EST, will feature a series of investors who will present their products/services. Following the presentations, participants will have the opportunities to reach out directly to the presenting fintech to make inquiries or explore partnership opportunities based on their interests. 

FINCA Impact Finance (FIF)

Elizabeth Davrishashvili is the Global Lead of Customer Products and Solutions at FINCA Impact Finance (FIF) with a network of 19 microfinance banks and institutions that offer innovative, responsible and impactful financial services to low-income clients. Elizabeth brings 11-years of experience in Strategic Marketing, Data-driven Sales, Product and Process Design as well as Project Management, working at Bank of Georgia (Tbilisi, Georgia), Citi Bank (London, UK) and Liberty Bank (Tbilisi, Georgia). Her major focus at FIF is to enhance the Retail and MSME segments with affordable and efficient products and services. Today, in the digital era, reaching the client is not as challenging, however, digitalization by itself brings some boundaries, therefore Elizabeth’s biggest role is to provide digital product-driven Customer Journeys with flexible, fast and easy financial services. Ms Davrishashvili holds a Master’s Degree in Strategic Management from University College London (UCL) and Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration from Caucasus University (CU) alongside with 1-year exchange program with Riga Technical University (RTU). 

Luz Leyva is the Portfolio Manager of REGMIFA, the Regional MSME Investment Fund for Sub-Saharan Africa, a finance blended fund that is managed by Symbiotics. The Fund invests in financial intermediaries offering financial services to micro, small and medium enterprises and/or providing access to primary goods of low and middle-income households. The Fund has a loan portfolio of USD 150 million covering 21 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. Her experience includes currency risk management and hedging in the impact investing industry and management of client relationships in international settings. She is an Economist who holds a Master of Public Administration from the School of International and Public Affairs at the University of Columbia in New York and she is also a CFA® charterholder.

Chris Wehbé is the Chief Executive Officer of Lendable. Previously, he was a Partner of Arrowgrass Capital Partners where he served as Head of Relative Value globally for the multi-strategy firm, overseeing the  Convertible Arbitrage, Volatility Arbitrage, and Capital Structure Arbitrage strategies. He also served as Chief Investment Officer for the firm’s tail-hedging product the Arrowgrass Vega Fund. Prior to joining Arrowgrass, Chris was part of the European Convertible Bond trading team at Lehman Brothers. Chris has completed the CFA program and holds both an MPhil Economics from the University of Oxford, and an M.Sc in Quantitative Finance and Risk Management from Bocconi University, Milan. 

 

 

Verdant Capital 

 

Edmund Higenbottam is the Managing Director at Verdant Capital, Edmund is an investment banker with extensive experience across London, Johannesburg, Lagos and Dubai. Prior to Verdant Capital, Edmund worked at global investment banks including Deutsche Bank and Morgan Stanley. Edmund started his career in 2001 and has worked in Africa since 2008. Edmund has a degree in Economics from the University of Cambridge.

 

 

 

 

IsDB 

Ghassen Khelifi is currently an Investment Specialist at the Islamic Development Bank, IsDB (A Multilateral Development Bank serving 57 Member Countries) involved in the design and implementation of Economic Empowerment projects targeting MSMEs mainly in Sub-Saharan Africa and MENA regions through the structuring of Lines of Finance/Funds/Equity investments in Financial Institutions. Ghassen holds a Bachelor’s in Finance (B.B.A) from HEC Montreal (Canada) and a Master’s in Finance and Investments Management (MSc) from the University of Aberdeen (United Kingdom) and is fluent in English, French and Arabic.

 

 

 

G5 Capital

Chloe Zang is the Head of UK at G5 Capital, corporate venture capital of Jiangong Real Estate Group. Before G5, she was the Managing Partner of a Silicon Valley-based angel investment firm and the co-founder of its shanghai based accelerator. Previously, Chloe was the partner at Dark Horse Group (SZ300688), china's largest incubator and entrepreneurship education platform, responsible for global strategy and business growth. She gained MBA at Imperial College London and her first master's degree in financial journalism in London then worked for BBC for 2 years. Chloe started her career in consulting in China. G5 Capital is the corporate venture capital and innovation arm of Jiangong Real Estate Group, a top-tier commercial real estate company headquartered in Hangzhou, China. G5 invests in both micro VCs and startups across silicon valley, China, Australia, and the UK. G5 UK will be focusing on Scaleup startups from Angel to A, in Property Tech/Smart City/Smart Building/IoT/AI/Robots/Fintech.