IFC-backed $100m initiative to boost women-owned businesses in developing world

LONDON, March 2 (Reuters) - Global investment platform Fasanara Capital and the International Finance Corporation are launching an initiative to lend to women-owned small businesses in the developing world with some $100 million in firepower.

The launch comes as developing world borrowers seek new sources of cash amid a broad Western aid pullback - and as private lenders seek the higher margins emerging markets offer.

• The project will offer loans of up to $50,000 dollars to thousands to women-owned businesses identified using fintech platforms, Fasanara Chief Executive Francesco Filia told Reuters.

• Filia said the effort is likely to garner additional private investment, including potential institutional capital. He declined to comment on its size, but a source said it was likely to launch with roughly $100 million.

• "There has been more of a need, more of a pressure to build up alternative resources of access to capital," Filia said, adding that small businesses "are in desperate need of funding because banks...focus on mainstream clients, large corporate clients."

• In a news release, Fasanara and the IFC said that globally, small businesses face a $5.7 trillion financing gap, with women-owned firms hit the hardest.

• Fasanara relies on more than 100 different finTech platforms in dozens of countries to identify and filter potential borrowers