Interview with Caroline, Country Manager Belgium Miimosa

Miimosa joined Solifin’s network as member in November 2021 and we are really happy to welcome them on board. Caroline Jonckheere, Country Manager Belgium, kindly agreed to answer some questions for an interview.

Who are you and what is your role in the company ?

Before joining MiiMOSA, I worked at Deliveroo for 3 years. I have always been attracted by the food industry. In addition to my job at Deliveroo, I studied Nutrition during the weekends which has confirmed my interest in sustainable food solutions and thus sustainable agriculture as well. Joining MiiMOSA was the perfect way to combine my personal interests and accept a professional challenge, being the entrepreuneurial adventure I took on when becoming Country Manager Belgium for MiiMOSA. Today, I am very happy to work for a company that shares my values and to have a positive impact on our society through my daily work.

What was your motivation in joining Miimosa and what makes it unique ?

I guess my answer here above already answers it. I joined MiiMOSA for its mission and vision. I love working for a company where everyone shares the same values. We all believe food and agriculture are at the center of today’s challenges and we thus need to attract finance again towards those sectors.

How does your organisation succeed in its mission so far?

Since launch, MiiMOSA has financed around 4000 projects in France and Belgium through reward-based crowdfunding and crowdlending. In Belgium alone, we have financed 400 projects through reward-based crowdfunding through the support of our community of 35.000 citizens. In addition to the financial support we have brought to projects, we believe we have also managed, even though the challenge is still ongoing and tremendous, to create a link again between consumers and the origin of the products they consume. MiiMOSA is more than a fundraising platform, we want to educate people about the agricultural sector.

What are your main challenges for the years to come?

We just launched crowdlending in Belgium with our first project getting financed currently. The main challenge is thus to develop this new financial offer in Belgium besides our well established position as a reward-based crowdfunding player. We have also expanded our activity towards Flanders in order to become a key national player in financing the agricultural and food transition. I’d say those two missions are the main challenges for the coming years.

Why was it important for you to join Solifin and what are your expectations?

Change is needed now. The financial sector, at the centre of our society, needs to evolve according to the challenges we are facing today. We need to redirect finance towards sectors where we need to change and evolve differently. This mission to restructure the financial sector cannot be achieved by a few players. Many different kinds of actors need to exchange and work together if we want to have a big impact. With Solifin getting bigger, more and more projects are also gaining faith sustainable finance does exist.

By joining Solifin, we want to join this overall mission and we are looking forward to meeting all other members and discovering many sustainable projects we could support in their journey.