POD: Impact Theatre Check—Balloon Ventures' contrarian sensibilities to SME financing in East Africa

Joshua Bicknell, co-founder of Balloon Ventures, discusses how the financial institution is challenging conventional investor logic by backing "boring businesses" to create sustainable employment in East Africa.

POD: Impact Theatre Check—Balloon Ventures' contrarian sensibilities to SME financing in East Africa
Photo by Kayla Farmer / Unsplash

Episode Overview:

This episode features a deep conversation with Joshua Bicknell exploring how Balloon Ventures evolved from a non-profit connecting young people with informal entrepreneurs to becoming a financial institution that's deployed over $14 million in loans to SMEs across Kenya and Uganda, while openly sharing portfolio data to prove the viability of SME lending as an asset class.

Key topics:

  • The false gospel of universal entrepreneurship
  • Defining and creating "good jobs"
  • Blended finance and return expectations
  • The power of boring businesses
  • Data transparency in impact investing
  • Cash-based economies and digitalisation

Notable points:

  1. Their portfolio businesses represent 8% of Eastern Uganda's GDP—approximately 0.5% of the country's total GDP
  2. The institution provides loans of $10,000-$200,000 bundled with 6 months of business support
  3. They're helping validate that SME lending can be viable with the right approach to data and risk
  4. Their model challenges the "have your cake and eat it" narrative in impact investing
  5. They're open-sourcing portfolio data to encourage other institutions to enter the space

Listen in for practical insights into how traditional brick-and-mortar businesses can drive meaningful economic development and job creation in East Africa's emerging markets.

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