Agora Partnerships
García & Bodán Nicaragua through TrustLaw assisted Agora Partnerships (“Agora”), a non-profit working to increase the flow of human, social and financial capital to early-stage, high-growth and high-impact enterprises. Their Accelerator Program finds the best double- or triple-bottom line companies in Latin America and helps them access the capital they need to grow their businesses and increase their impact by making them visible to the investors, mentors and other supporters that would like to support them.
They are registered as a 501(c)(3) non-profit entity in the U.S., with their headquarters located in Washington, D.C.
They developed (in conjunction with World Impact Foundation) an innovative financing mechanism to increase capital to early-stage entrepreneurs in Latin America. This financing mechanism will provide capital in the form of “recoverable grants” to small and medium enterprises in Latin America through a “pass through” restricted grant from World Impact Foundation to them. World Impact Foundation (a U.S.-headquartered family foundation) approved a grant in the amount of US $ 100,000 to be implemented to Agora. Agora was then responsible to redistribute (or “pass through”) the capital as a “recoverable grant” to the selected social entrepreneur(s). The “recoverable grant” was structured between $10-50K USD (average $25K-35K USD) with 0% interest rate at 12-24-month payback. Each “recoverable grant” will have a 1% disbursement fee (charged directly to the entrepreneur) to cover transaction costs. The financing, in conjunction with Agora’s consulting, is meant to be catalytic in supporting activities that need risk tolerant and inexpensive capital, while meanwhile helping these companies meet the family office’s milestones for traditional investment later down the road. Ultimately, World Impact Foundation would follow on with direct debt investment to the social entrepreneur(s).
The Managing Partner of García & Bodán Managua, Federico Gurdián, the Associate Valeska Fonseca and the Law Clerk Carla Jirón drafted the template “recoverable grant” contracts that they will use with the social entrepreneurs in Nicaragua to ensure they were fully protected and in compliance with all relevant and country-specific laws. They also provided legal counsel with respect to applicable local rules and regulations as well as best practices.