Pitch

Current Slide Deck - https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1ZO2N6B8ti_MMx_YfhrDaVvf8X9CXVWE87kKoqalWgfA/edit#slide=id.p2

Written Pitch

Banyan Education: 500 million young people in the global south need education to tackle climate, health, and food crises. Income-sharing agreements finally make this sustainable - students pay only when employed, and crucially, education costs match local wages. Yet every employed graduate locks up capital for up to 20 years. Banyan Education unlocks this - we give student finance providers money today for the payments their employed graduates will make over the next decade, enabling the education of 4x more students today. We're creating a system where educators, investors, and communities succeed together through student employment - true outcome-based finance that scales individual success into systemic change.

Verbal Pitch [v3]

Audience: fundraising
Duration: 8 minutes (1200 words)
Slides: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1XZ51zk3-ie9ZnLeF9Vx5fNBdESMUU0YhPu4UkOT9eOQ/edit?slide=id.g36dbd566be9_0_110&pli=1#slide=id.g36dbd566be9_0_110

Slide 1: Opening

Over the next decade, 500 million young people in the global south will be entering the workforce. These are the people who could help solve climate change, healthcare challenges, and food security - if they can access education. I'm James Ramsay, and at Banyan Education, we're working to build financial infrastructure that could help educate many more students at scale.

Slide 2: Context - Optimism

Let me show you why we're optimistic. This chart reveals something remarkable. Sub-Saharan Africa alone will add 72 million young people to their workforce by 2050. That's an incredible amount of human potential.

I've worked with talented people across Africa and Latin America for the past 8 years. What I've learned is that talent truly is everywhere - brilliant, motivated people ready to contribute. The question is whether we can equip them with the skills they need.

Slide 3: Context - The Connection

Here's what keeps me up at night. These same regions - Africa, Indo-Pacific, Latin America - are bearing the brunt of climate change, health crises, and food insecurity. But here's the thing: every one of these challenges requires skilled local workers to solve.

You can't import healthcare workers at scale. You need local nurses, technicians, and community health workers who understand the culture and speak the language. You can't address food security without agricultural scientists who understand local soil and weather patterns. You can't build renewable energy infrastructure without local engineers and technicians to install and maintain it.

The cruel irony is that youth unemployment in these regions is sky-high - not because young people lack ability, but because they lack access to the specific technical education these jobs require. We have massive challenges that need skilled workers, and millions of young people who could fill those roles, but no way to bridge that gap affordably.

Slide 4: Context - ISAs Show Promise

This is where Income Sharing Agreements become interesting. Unlike traditional loans, students pay nothing upfront and only repay when they're employed - typically 10-15% of income for a fixed period.

What excites us is how this changes the entire equation. Schools have to focus on employment outcomes. Students can afford education regardless of family wealth. And here's the key - ISA providers are actively partnering with employers to train exactly the workers they need. It's demand-driven education.

Slide 5: Problem - The Success Paradox

Let me walk you through what we discovered. Here's Anita, a real student from Rwanda who wanted to study electrical engineering to work in renewable energy. Her ISA provider funded her education, she graduated, found a job - a success story, right?

But look at this timeline. The ISA provider invested in Anita at year zero. She studied for three years, took six months to find a job, and now she's repaying over the next 9 years. That's 12-13 years total before that capital can help another student.

The numbers are compelling - 85% graduation rate, 78% employment rate. But success creates its own problem. Every successful student locks up capital that could be educating others. Providers tell us they have waiting lists of qualified students but no capital to serve them.

Slide 6: Solution

We believe there's an elegant solution. Look at when the risk fundamentally changes - once students are employed and making payments. At that point, we know they've graduated, found work, and are honoring their agreements. The risky part is over.

By purchasing these performing income streams, we can give ISA providers immediate capital to serve new students. Our analysis suggests this capital recycling could help providers educate roughly 4 times as many students with the same initial capital.

For investors, these are performing assets with 5-7 years of remaining payments, diversified across countries, currencies, and sectors. It's patient capital with purpose.

Slide 7: Vision

We're not agnostic about which ISAs we purchase. We're focusing on education that directly addresses critical needs.

Healthcare programs, because we know the worker shortage is acute and getting worse. Renewable energy technicians, because that sector needs to grow 10x in these regions. Agricultural technology, because food security requires innovation, not just farming.

By being selective, we can help create a positive cycle - more healthcare workers improving community health, more energy technicians expanding access to clean power, more agricultural scientists improving yields. These aren't just jobs - they're solutions.

Slide 8: Market Size

The scale of opportunity is hard to overstate. With only 9% tertiary enrollment in sub-Saharan Africa versus a global average of 43%, we're looking at hundreds of millions who could benefit from higher education.

Right now, about 28,000 students are financed through ISAs globally. At an average of $3,000 per student, that's an $84 million market today. But with 16 providers operating across 37 countries and growing rapidly, we see this reaching billions in the next decade. The infrastructure needs to be built now.

Slide 9: Business Model

Let me explain our economics. We purchase income streams with 10 years remaining at roughly 60% of face value. That discount reflects time value of money, currency risk, and potential defaults - risks we model carefully.

ISA providers accept this because for them, 60 cents today that can educate a new student is worth more than a dollar in 10 years. It's the classic bird in hand situation. With our standard 2% management fee and 20% performance carry, we can deliver 5% net returns to investors while enabling massive impact.

Slide 10: Competition

We don't see ISA providers as competitors - they're our essential partners. Traditional banks generally won't touch this market. Development finance institutions move too slowly.

What's missing is patient capital that understands both impact and returns. We're building infrastructure that helps the entire ecosystem scale more efficiently.

Slide 11: Traction

We've spent the past year building relationships and understanding the market deeply. Chancen and Lumni, who've been doing this for 20 years, have been generous partners in helping us understand the nuances. We're associate members of the Global ISA Alliance, learning from all the providers.

World Vision Australia is particularly excited - they've been sponsoring children's primary education for decades and see this as the missing piece to complete the journey to employment.

Slide 12: Team

I've spent 8 years building products for companies that hire globally - I've seen firsthand the talent that exists everywhere. Paul brings deep experience in environmental finance. Our advisors include Simba from Brightlight's private assets team and Ross who runs Cassinia Community.

We're not education experts - we're infrastructure builders who recognize when capital markets aren't serving critical needs.

Slides 13-14: Ask

We're raising $200k to finalize preparations for a $2 million pilot fund. This isn't about proving ISAs work - Chancen and Lumni have already done that over 20 years. It's about proving that a secondary market can unlock the capital to scale from thousands to millions of students.

The pilot will purchase ISAs from 500 students across 5 countries, targeting healthcare, renewable energy, and other critical sectors. We'll validate our pricing models, refine operations, and demonstrate the investor returns.

Closing

We'd value your thoughts and questions. How can we build this in a way that serves all stakeholders well? Because with 500 million young people entering the workforce, and massive challenges that need local solutions, we believe the intersection of education and employment is where transformation happens.

The infrastructure we build today determines whether these young people become the problem-solvers our world desperately needs, or another generation left behind. We'd be grateful for your partnership in choosing transformation.

Feedback / Refinements

  • Slide 7: Food Security: non-agricultural jobs key to food security. (source). Is this intended that non-agricultural jobs improve food security? Should the lead sentence be something like "Banyan will invest in ISAs with distinct…."
  • Clearer "aha" moment.

Archive

[v2] Unlocking Opportunity through Higher Education Financing ``` Audience: fundraising Duration: 2 minutes (250 words) ``` ### Problem Talent doesn't discriminate by gender, ethnicity, or socio-economic status. And we know that higher eduction, including vocational pathways, is needed to fully unlock private and public benefits. That's why high income countries like Australia, like the Netherlands, have public student financing instruments so that everyone has a pathway to employment. But in sub-Saharan Africa, the tertiary enrolment rate is only 9%. ### Role in Solution Last week, Tom Hall, CEO of UBS Optimus foundation said that funding tertiary education for everyone globablly who can't afford it would require USD 60 trillion in grants. But with ISA, a sustainable student financing instrument they estimate the cost at only 0.5 trillion. Today, ISA are an emerging space with about $250m invested - only 0.05% (5 hundreths of a percent) of that 0.5tn. The amazing thing is the investment to date is highly risk tolerant, and there for the long haul. The problem is sustainability - originating an ISA locks the capital up for 15-20 years while the students studies and makes repayments. We want to unlock that precious maximum impact capital, by bringing investors looking for low risk, low volatilty, and shorter time horizon to the table. We're going to do this in two key ways: * use boring proven financial tools: diversification and securitization * rewarding success and sustainability: by acquring ISA for members that are qualified, employed and repaying. ### ISA ISA are income contingent financial instruments. They align And critically, these instruments protect young people from downside risks to ### Outcomes ### Story Every time I talk to the ISA providers, they have story after story of young people undertaking all forms of qualification ### Vision / Values Our vision is to directly bring 100m of investment into the space (50k students) in under 10 years, and make this new asset class ready for impact oriented institutional investors. We're looking for supporters who share our vision of moving from charity, scholaraships, and grants, where dollars are spent once to unlocking a financial sustainable solution, using proven financial approaches, that is capable of scaling to the size of the opportunity.
[v1] Banyan Pitch #### The Crisis: Youth Employment and the Education Gap Sub-Saharan Africa faces an unprecedented demographic challenge. With a swelling youth population and only 45% secondary completion rates dropping to just 9% higher education enrollment, millions of young people are trapped in cycles of underemployment and informality. Many work far below their skill level simply to survive, locked into jobs without contracts, protections, or progression opportunities. This growing education chasm creates serious risks. As secondary completion rises but higher education access remains severely limited, the number of youth not in employment, education, or training (NEET) continues to grow—representing the largest contributor to political instability across the global south. With 98% of sub-Saharan African youth currently excluded from higher education opportunities, we face both a human capital crisis and a threat to regional stability. #### The Solution: Higher Education as the Ultimate Lever Higher education delivers the greatest private and public returns for families and communities, unlocking the fullest value from decades of prior investment in health, nutrition, and basic education. However, limited student financing options—both public and private—remain the primary barrier preventing enrollment growth. The model for success already exists. Higher education financing has been successfully implemented across multiple countries in the global south, with providers now replicating proven approaches in new markets. The primary constraint isn't demand or viability—it's access to capital for loan providers. #### Proven Impact: Income Sharing Agreements in Action Income Sharing Agreements (ISAs) represent the private adaptation of successful public financing schemes pioneered in Australia's Higher Education Contribution Scheme (HECS) in 1989. Leading providers like Lumni in South America and Chancen in Africa have demonstrated remarkable results: * **30,000+ students financed** with an 85% graduation rate * **78% formal employment rate** among graduates * **51% female participation** and 95% from low-income backgrounds * **3.5x median annual income** increase for African graduates ISAs work by allowing students to borrow against future earnings, with repayments that are contingent on achieving living income thresholds. Unlike traditional loans, ISAs include caps on total repayments and fixed repayment periods, protecting both low earners from hardship and high earners from excessive payments. #### The Capital Challenge: Patient Investment for Long-Term Returns The ISA model requires substantial patient capital. The timeline from loan origination to first repayment can extend five years as students complete qualifications and secure employment. This patient capital requirement creates both the challenge and the opportunity for institutional investors seeking diversified, impact-driven returns. #### Banyan's Approach: A Global Education Fund Banyan Education is creating one of the first global ISA investment funds, bringing together private and philanthropic capital to provide higher education loans to hundreds of millions of young people. Our fund offers investors: **Diversification:** Exposure across multiple providers, schools, qualifications, countries, and currencies, reducing concentration risk while maximizing impact reach. **Security:** Investments secured by the income streams of employed graduates, directly rewarding educational and employment success. **Transparency:** Comprehensive impact, performance, and accountability reporting tools, with aggregated data sharing among partners to accelerate learning and growth. #### Supporting Ethical Providers at Scale By partnering with leading local ISA providers, Banyan addresses critical capital constraints while building sustainable growth: **Improved Cash Flow:** Acquiring specific loan income streams transfers risk from originators to investors, stabilizing provider operations. **Unlocked Capital:** Risk-tolerant capital can be reinvested years earlier, allowing providers to apply learnings and scale faster. **Collaborative Growth:** Banyan aggregates and shares data, technology, and knowledge across the network, fostering collective learning and improvement. #### Pilot Investment: Validating the Model **Launch:** 2025\ **Size:** $2 million USD\ **Reach:** 500 students across 4 countries through 2 established providers\ **Target IRR:** 6% **Impact Commitments:** * Minimum 50% female students * Minimum 80% low-income backgrounds * 20% sponsored children to close the education loop **Pilot Objectives:** * Validate transaction structures, financial modeling, and data systems * Conduct comprehensive impact studies * Prepare foundation for $100 million Global Fund launch #### Vision: Transforming Global Education Access With 70% of Africa's population under 30, youth represent the continent's greatest reason for optimism. Banyan Education aims to unlock this potential by creating sustainable pathways to higher education for over one billion young people currently excluded from opportunity. Through strategic partnerships with ethical ISA providers and institutional investors committed to both returns and impact, we're building the infrastructure to finance a new generation of learners across Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

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