05/06/2026
Last week the Beanstalk AgTech team was in Lao PDR, with Natalia Rebollo Sampedro and Justin Ahmed delivering workshops for local business owners and introducing them to a new Business Diagnostic Tool, built in partnership between Beanstalk and ADB Frontier.
ADB Frontier is the Asia Development Bank’s market-building platform that is pioneering innovative financing to catalyze risk capital for underserved enterprises in frontier markets across Asia Pacific, with around 90% of the businesses involved in agricultural production and processing. These businesses are often capital starved, with funding and support from ADB Frontier enabling them to unlock their next phase of growth.
ADB Frontier commissioned Beanstalk to build a Diagnostic tool for SMEs that it has supported, identifying the SME’s specific challenges and a path forward to reach the businesses’ full potential. The SMEs ADB Frontier supports are scaling fast and busy managing their day-to-day business, so ADB Frontier needed an easy and efficient way for the business owners to assess their current business, identify priority areas and receive targeted support.
Beanstalk’s Diagnostic tool assesses 20 indicators of business growth and provides SMEs with a clear picture of where their business currently stands, their strengths, and areas to improve; specific to their industry, customer segments, and the markets in which they are active. Importantly, the Diagnostic also gives business owners and their investors a roadmap they can action to address their challenges, including steps they can take, resources to utilise and experts to contact, to help fuel their growth.
Natalia and Justin have been in Laos piloting the Diagnostic tool with dozens of local business owners, as part of an ADB-sponsored conference focused on financing and supporting growth for Laotian micro, small and medium enterprises and women entrepreneurs.
