YAPU Solutions GmbH

Institution

YAPU Solutions is a Berlin based Fintech that was founded in 2017 with the vision to empower microfinance institutions (MFIs) so they can act as agents of change for the most vulnerable, like smallholder farmers, by financing Nature-based Solutions to increase productivity and resiliency. To fulfill this role, microfinance institutions need three elements: they need the right tools to evaluate their clients’ climate risks, more efficient processes, and knowledge about the economic benefits of Nature-based solutions. YAPU Solutions addresses these needs with a software solution that digitizes the credit evaluation process for smallholder farmers. The automated analysis allows MFIs a complete view on production and climate risks, entails recommendations on farming practices and crops, and facilitates financial products to finance the most suitable Nature-based Solutions per farmer. With a second office in Ecuador, the company’s current operations cover Costa Rica, Colombia, El Salvador, Dominican Republic, Guatemala as well as Benin, Senegal and Burkina Faso.
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Green finance

YAPU Solutions makes nature-based adaptation operational. YAPU uses climate, productive and economic data to build the business case and to make it bankable for financial institutions as agents of change. YAPU’s digital platform can be applied globally, while the data is sourced and managed locally.
By using the YAPU platform microfinance institutions are enabled to evaluate not only the farming practices of their clients, but also the performance of a given climate solution. Thereby the institutional capacity of engaging in climate smart finance is strengthened on a continuous basis, allowing them to structure credit products (especially the financing of climate solutions) to the productive reality of their end-customers. Through the reduced risk, they become enabled to offer better suited products at more reasonable prices. Both is benefitting their end-customers who become enabled to invest in a more prosperous future while developing increased adaptive capacity in face of climate change.

Climate adaptation

Only 5% of climate finance are currently being channeled towards climate adaptation. This needs to change rapidly to protect smallholder farmer livelihoods all over the world.
Many rural communities have ancient knowledge about Nature-based Solutions and are aware about their potential to protect their ecosystems. Nevertheless, the conditions aren’t favorable enough to create a large-scale transformation towards Nature-based Adaptation.
At the same time smallholder farmers are among the most vulnerable to the effects of a changing climate. Scaling Nature-based Solutions is crucial to protect global food systems and to secure food sovereignty of billions of people on this planet.
To achieve this, a larger transformation of financial sector towards climate adaptation finance is needed. Therefore, we initiated Scale for Resilience together with our partners CIAT/CGIAR and GAWA Capital to support a much-needed paradigm shift towards adaptation in the inclusive finance sector.

Digital tools

Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) are important to build trust. The era of digitalization opens a new window of opportunity to not only build trust but to scale it as transparent as possible.
The YAPU platform leads by example how automated and smart data MRV can transform the way towards climate adaptation finance.
MRV systems in financial institutions enable statistical validation of most successful Nature-based Solutions: Ecosystem deterioration and climate change pose real risks to agricultural production – Nature-based Solutions are hence a risk mitigation strategy. The implementation of these solutions therefore enables lower loan defaults and loan loss provisions of financial institutions while increased purchasing power, investment and payment capacity of small farmers will enhance attractiveness of the segment, its resilience and access to finance.

Goals

YAPU aims to make 100 MFIs and their portfolios more resilient by providing them with suitable digital tools. These tools enable them to better evaluate their clients’ risks and to recommend most suitable, climate smart financial products to smallholder farmers.
Together with other initiative members YAPU plans to onboard 100 MFIs, 30 investors and 5 research institutions from all over the world until 2030.
Public funding that the initiative will mobilize is another metric against which we report. Until 2030 the initiative wants to mobilize 15 million USD of public funding to fulfill the Scale for Resilience mission.

Products or projects that exemplifies adaptation actions

A good example showcasing YAPU’s approach to adaptation action is the EcoMicro project “Agricultural finance and Smart data for climate adaptation in Ecuador”, financed by IDB Lab and implemented by the RFD with the technical and technological support of YAPU Solutions It aims to:
  • Improve the availability and management of information on risks and opportunities in the rural sector to promote agricultural finance adapted to climate change.
  • Increase the opportunities for financial institutions and provide services to small producers and MSMEs in the agricultural sector.
  • Promote investment in agricultural businesses and develop adaptive capacity to climate and environmental risks.
  • Support an increase in agricultural production and reduce the risk profile of agricultural customers
All participating MFIs receive access to the YAPU platform, which plays a crucial role of facilitating information flows but also the application of adaptation concepts in credit decisions. It supports Institutions to capture interviews with end-customers digitally and cross-reference them with data obtained from providers and agronomists. The result is an automated credit analysis including a clear view on economic risks, climate risks as well as suited Nature-based Solutions for a given client.