Welcome to ODF

ORGANIC DEVELOPMENT FINANCE

Affordable finance to organic agricultural SME’s in emerging countries to increase organic production and achieve sustainable impact for environment and people.

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Welcome to ODF

ORGANIC DEVELOPMENT FINANCE

Affordable finance to organic agricultural SME’s in emerging countries to increase organic production and achieve sustainable impact for environment and people.

About us

ODF (Organic Development Finance) was initiated to provide affordable finance to certified organic and regenerative agricultural companies in low-income and emerging countries. The objective is to enhance local supply chains for organic crops in order to realize environmental and social benefits of organic production. Current core investors and partners are Tradin Organic (a specialist in the sourcing, processing and distribution of organic ingredients), USAID, GIZ, and Invest International.

ODF works closely with a number of Buyer Partners to support their suppliers with flexible working capital financing and expertise and during its ‘proof of concept’ phase made 12 investments with 10 suppliers across 9 crops and countries. ODF is now ready to scale and has partnered with FOUNT, an experienced Impact Fund and Investment Advisor.

The affordable working capital is offered to the AgriSME’s in a standardized way and ODF offers revolving facilities to investees ensuring a simple process for follow up loans. Recognizing the seasonal demands of SME’s, particularly during peak harvesting periods, the fund ensures timely disbursement of funds. This enables SME’s to get access to international export markets and to adequately and punctually compensate farmers in line with the bustling harvesting season.

ODF‘s Product Offering:

Affordable and flexible working capital loans
for the sourcing of organic commodities by supplier companies and based on a standardized approach and longer term contracts to enable for repeat deals.

Access to international export markets:
ODF collaborates with strategically chosen Buyer Partners, establishing Long Term Partnerships connecting Buyer Partners, SME’s, and ODF.

E&S impact expertise: Bringing Environmental and Social (E&S) expertise to relevant business.

Tailormade Technical Assistance:
Delivering focused technical assistance that covers environmental and social impact alignment, certification and compliance guidance, comprehensive management support, as well as training and education initiatives.

Supports smallholder farmers, encourages job creation for women and youth
Organic certifications provides social benefits through premium payments, stable income, and safer work.

ODF offers accessible financing to support sustainable agriculture and enhance farmer livelihoods.

ODF offers accessible financing to support sustainable agriculture and enhance farmer livelihoods.

Unique Approach:

Find out everything you need to know and more about how we create our business process models.

odf-flyer-2025 Standardized investment approach- based on long term partnerships between Buyer Partners, investees and ODF and revolving transactions – key for efficiency.

Facilitating access for organic suppliers and farmers to international commodity markets and supporting sustainable organic agricultural practices.

ODF has already disbursed several loans to organic producers working closely with smallholder farmers in countries such as Togo, Sierra Leone, Brazil and Mexico for products including orange juice, soy, cocoa and cashew nuts, in its ‘proof of concept phase’ and is now ready to scale-up operations. ODF has an active risk and portfolio management approach. This involves actively selecting, monitoring, and adjusting the fund’s investments based on geographic, crops seasons, impact etc. in a strategic manner.

ODF has a blended capital structure including first loss, mezzanine and senior debt capital and is looking for interested investors to grow the fund to a target capital of EURO 30 million.

Impact

ODF is founded on the proposition that organic agriculture brings benefits to the environment and can provide a safer work and a better livelihood for smallholder farmers through price premiums.

Key impact objectives are:

  • Strengthen organic and regenerative agricultural value chains.
  • Sustained, improved livelihoods of farmers and workers.
  • Promote high social and environmental standards
  • Create employment opportunities, especially for women and youth

ODF contributes to SDG 1, 5, 8, 12, 13 and 15.

odf sdg

Strategic Partnerships
with Buyer Partners

ODF is aiming at a number of long-term partnerships with Buyer Partners to obtain a balanced and diversified portfolio. Jointly with these Buyer Partners, ODF will identify potentially repeat clients for different crops in different countries and build a long-term relationship with both Buyer Partner and related supplier companies with the aim to provide adequate finance in a timely and affordable manner and to support on increasing impact. The cooperation would be formally registered by means of a Partnership Agreement between the Buyer Partner and ODF.

Collateral

Each ODF loan to a supplier company will be supported by purchase agreements from one or several Buyer Partners, who then sign a Dutch Security Agreement (“DSA”), where in principle up to 50-70% of the contract will be financed by ODF, as part of a tripartite transaction between ODF, the local supplier and the Buyer Partner. The Buyer Partnership agreement provides standard risk mitigation. A credit agreement between ODF and the supplier will then be signed.

Strategic Partnerships with Buyer Partners

Collateral

Organic

Climate change and environmental degradation pose significant risks to global food supply chains and disproportionally affect emerging markets. By scaling organic farming in emerging markets, the benefits are multiple:

Support-icon

Support
Support SMEs
in emerging
markets

Support-icon

Soil Quality
long term
yields
resilience to
climate change

Water-Quality-icon

Water Quality
less surface
pollution
improved ground
water quality

Support-icon

Biodiversity
biodiversity
preservation
carbon sequestriation

Livelihoods-icon

Livelihoods
premium
payments
stable income
safer work

Flexible seasonal working capital product

USD or EUR loans secured on buyer contracts.

Loan amounts up to 50-70%
of the value of your contract depending on the product. Typically, 500k-1.5 million.

Tenor aligned
with the seasonal needs of your business.

Accessible interest rates
calculated continuously based on actual loan amount outstanding.

Flexible drawdowns based on need
Repaid capital can be drawn down multiple times throughout the season.

Supply Chain Support Services

Team

Robert Pothoven foto ODF

Robert Pothoven
Investment Lead

FOUNT_Jill2-320x320

Jill Shankleman
ESG and Impact Advisor

FOUNT_Connor2-320x320

Connor Barette
Impact and Investment Analyst

Gerard Vos

Gerard Vos
Senior Investment Advisor

Ingrid-Haars-foto

Ingrid-Haars
Business Controller

Management Board

FOUNT_Bob2-320x320

Bob Assenberg
Partner FOUNT

Bernadette Blom
Partner FOUNT

Gemma

Gemma Verhoeven
Impact Investment
Team Lead

odf

Supervisory Board Members

Susie-Hjorth

Susie Hjorth
Chair

Eric-Mallant

Eric Mallant
Board Member

Gerard-Versteegh

Gerard Versteegh
Board Member

odf

Team

Robert Pothoven foto ODF

Robert Pothoven
Investment Lead

FOUNT_Jill2-320x320

Jill Shankleman
ESG and Impact Advisor

FOUNT_Connor2-320x320

Connor Barette
Impact Analyst

Gerard Vos

Gerard Vos
Senior Investment Advisor

Ingrid-Haars-foto

Ingrid-Haars
Business Controller

Management
board

FOUNT_Bob2-320x320

Bob Assenberg
Partner FOUNT

Bernadette Blom
Partner FOUNT

Gemma

Gemma Verhoeven
Impact Investment
Team Lead

Supervisory
Board Members

Susie-Hjorth

Susie Hjorth
Chair

Eric-Mallant

Eric Mallant
Board Member

Gerard-Versteegh

Gerard Versteegh
Board Member

Fount is a leading impact investment firm, providing strategic advisory and investment management services, to drive social and environmental impact, alongside reasonable financial returns in emerging markets.

ODF-logo-2025
ODF-logo-2025

Fount is a leading impact investment firm, providing strategic advisory and investment management services, to drive social and environmental impact, alongside reasonable financial returns in emerging markets.

Fund and Investment Advisor

Partners

News

investment in Moredocofe SC

Exciting News from ODF!

We’re thrilled to announce that Organic Development Finance (ODF) has made an investment in Moredocofe S.C, a pioneering organic coffee company in Ethiopia that’s making a remarkable impact in the coffee industry.

Read more »

Interested?

Do you share odf’s vision and want to become part of ODF? Please get in touch with us. Join our journey.

Download the factsheet.

Grievance mechanism

ODF takes all reasonable precautions to conduct its operations in a manner that avoids complaints to the Fund.
Any grievances about the environmental or social aspects of ODF operations should be presented by email or writing to: info@organicdevelopmentfinance.org.

© 2025 Organic Development Finance. All rights reserved.

Learn More

About Us
Get Involved
Contact

Get in Touch

Organic Development Finance
Herengracht 201
1016 BE Amsterdam
The Netherlands

© 2025 Organic Development Finance. All rights reserved.

Robert Pothoven foto ODF

Robert Pothoven

Investment Lead

Robert joined FOUNT as the Investment Lead for ODF. He has extensive experience in Trade Finance of Agri commodities working at ABN AMRO, where he held a Director position. He was responsible for managing a portfolio of trade finance loans to top tier agri commodities traders. 

During this time Robert also worked as a financial advisor to a Bolivian reforestation project and helped an Indonesian farmer cooperation with an investment plan for a fermentation plant.

Robert then went on to co-found a software company in carbon accounting and successfully grew the business without outside capital. The business was acquired by South Pole, where he continued to work as Business Development Lead.

Robert holds a double master’s degree in law from the Erasmus University Rotterdam. He lives in Haarlem and loves spending time with his family & friends and do sports like running and fitness.

FOUNT_Jill2-320x320

Jill Shankleman

ESG and Impact Advisor

Jill has over thirty years experience advising investors and development finance institutions on understanding and mitigating ESG risks and delivering positive impact as part of a commercial project.

Within the AGRI3 Fund, she has been responsible from September 2021 to September 2022 for ESG appraisal and due diligence; establishing ESG requirements for financing; developing impact indicators and working with Partnerbanks and clients on risk mitigation and positive impacts for transactions in low and middle income countries. She also took the lead in developing ESG and impact policies and tools for the fund. Until September 2022 she was involved with AGRI3 as a member of the E&S and Impact Advisory panel and at the same time provided advice and support on specific agriculture E&S and impact-related topics.

Prior to joining the AGRI3 Fund, she was a senior ESG Advisor to the Althelia Climate Fund. For most of her career, Jill has worked as a consultant and has extensive experience of the extractive industries worldwide as well as of the agriculture and forestry projects that AGRI3 focusses on. Jill has also been a Senior Social and Environmental Specialist at the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) and FMO, and was responsible for setting up the social performance consulting practice of Environmental Resources Management (ERM).

FOUNT_Connor2-320x320

Connor Barette

Impact and
Investment Analyst

Connor joined FOUNT in May 2023. Prior to this, Connor worked as an impact analyst at Impact Institute, which looks to measure and monetize the positive and negative social and environmental impact of its clients. Here he focused on creating responsible value chains, mainly in the food and agriculture sectors.

Connor also has experience as a B Lab consultant, conducting a B Corp assessment for a leading clothes manufacturer. In addition, he has worked as a volunteer at EcoSwell, a sustainable development NGO in Peru.

In his free time, he enjoys playing sports, reading, and hanging out with friends.

Connor holds a Master of Science degree in Environment and Resource Management from the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and a Master in Sustainable Business and Innovation degree from EADA Business School Barcelona.

Gerard Vos

Gerard Vos

Senior Investment Advisor

Gerard has more than 20 years of work experience, including 6 years of direct impact investing experience in Africa. From 2006-2015 he worked for two different private equity firms: HAL Investments (2006-2009) and the Investment Fund for Health in Africa (“IFHA”, 2009-2015, investors including IFC, APG and FMO). Both funds are well-respected investment organisations with an international focus. Through his broad work experience, Gerard has developed a keen insight into the entire investment process, from the first contact with a potential investment candidate to portfolio management activities.

He joined FOUNT in early 2015 as a Senior Investment Advisor. Since then, Gerard has worked for Reall (affordable housing investor in Africa and Asia, based in the UK), PMIC (microfinance organisation in Pakistan), IFHA (healthcare PE fund focused entirely on Africa) and BIX Capital (clean energy, main focus on Africa and Asia), amongst other. Assignments included performing a market study, financial modelling, compiling an Investment Memorandum as well as deal execution.

Gerard obtained his Master’s degree in Macroeconomics at the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, the Netherlands.

Ingrid-Haars-foto

Ingrid-Haars

Business Controller

I joined FOUNT in June 2024. After being self-employed for 8 years working on several assignments at the Rabobank, ABN AMRO and FMO. Prior to that I was employed for about 21 years at the Rabobank.

Over the years I worked in several positions and departments at banks. But the last decade I specialized mainly in first, second and third line controlling with regard to Customer Due Diligence.
Besides that I am a process controller and fraud expert. I followed an evening study during my first years of working and this way got a bachelor degree in business administration. And in my free time I enjoy cooking, reading and spending time with family and friends with a cold glass of white wine.

FOUNT_Bob2-320x320

Bob Assenberg

Partner FOUNT

Bob has over 20 years of investment experience including several years as fund manager. Additionally, he has hands-on general management experience in microfinance and SME banking. Bob has been in a number of Investment Committees and Supervisory Boards and is currently member of the Supervisory Board and IC for BIX Capital as well as Advisory Committee-member for the Mergence Renewable Energy Debt Fund.

Bob is partner of FOUNT. Within FOUNT, Bob has been leading in the long-term assignment for portfolio management and refinancing of a social housing loan portfolio in 17 emerging countries and played a key role in ‘investment readiness’ assignments for several clients. For FOUNT, Bob is the lead for structuring and setting up of the Good Fashion Fund as well as the lead advisor for Agri3, a joint initiative of Rabobank and UN for sustainable agriculture in emerging markets. Bob has a vivid interest in the microfinance, housing and energy sector and has been on assignments in numerous countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Central- and South Eastern Europe.

Bernadette Blom

Partner FOUNT

Bernadette has around 25 years structured finance and strategic advisory experience of which more than 17 years of experience in impact investment advisory. Bernadette is partner of FOUNT since 2011 (previously named Goodwell Advisory Services). Within FOUNT, Bernadette has been leading several strategic assignments including assignments focusing on corporate strategies, feasibility studies, impact investment strategies and frameworks, etc. Bernadette is (part-time) Director of BIX Capital, an initiative of Shell Foundation, Cardano Development and FOUNT, and IC member of Good Fashion Fund. She worked with different type of clients in amongst others Nicaragua, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Kenya and also for reputable impact investors such as Oikocredit, FMO, the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Bernadette is currently Board member at Aqua for all.

Before establishing FOUNT, Bernadette co-founded Corporate Connect, a financial advisory firm with a focus on impact investing in emerging markets, worked at Accenture as senior strategy consultant, Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi investment banking (London) and ABN AMRO Bank’s investment banking division (Amsterdam).

Gemma

Gemma Verhoeven

Impact Investment
Team Lead

Gemma joined FOUNT in January 2022. With 15 years of experience in development finance in emerging markets, she is a seasoned professional in impact investing.

Before joining FOUNT, Gemma fulfilled the role of Regional manager East Africa and Asia at EDFI MC – ElectriFI in Brussels. ElectriFI is a blended finance facility funded by the EU providing early stage catalytic capital to financially sustainable initiatives aimed at increasing or improving access to energy in emerging countries.

Gemma has worked 7 years as Investment Officer at FMO, the Dutch development bank, in multiple regions and sectors, covering the full investment process life cycle. Having left FMO and the Netherlands in 2014, she lived in Bulgaria for 6 years where she worked as independent investment advisor, among others for FMO and ElectriFI.

Gemma finished her masters degree in international financial business in Amsterdam.

Susie-Hjorth

Susie Hjorth

Chair

Susie is a Senior business executive with a well-rounded international commercial background in food and agriculture. She is the Commercial Director at Tradin Organic and is the Chairperson of the Supervisory Board.

Eric-Mallant

Eric Mallant

Board Member

As a former Director of ING Trade & Commodity Finance, Eric brings a wealth of experience and networks to ODF. Under Eric’s guidance, ODF is establishing itself as a leader and innovator in socially responsible Trade Finance.

Gerard-Versteegh

Gerard Versteegh

Board Member

Gerard, the former President of Tradin Organic Agriculture BV, brings extensive experience in the sourcing and trade of organic food ingredients. Throughout his career, he has demonstrated his commitment to promoting sustainable agriculture in low income and emerging markets. Gerard co-led the creation of ODF from concept through to soft launch, and continues to actively support the project  through the Supervisory Board