Why We Invest

Proximity Designs addresses a critical market failure by providing Myanmar’s smallholder farmers with the resources that they need to improve their productivity. Crucially, it does so by following a unique strategy based on human-centered design.

This approach to developing products and services starts with conducting frontline research—including time-intensive ethnographic interviews—to understand users’ real needs and how those needs fit into a broader economic and cultural context. Thus, as the organization’s name suggests, Proximity aims to get close to its users and to meet them where they are in life. Another key aspect of this approach is that it is iterative: Proximity takes in feedback from users and works to hone each product or service until it fully addresses their needs.

A commitment to human-centered design is rare in markets that serve people who live in poverty. The work of investigating users’ needs and refining products requires an investment of money, time, and design talent, and most organizations that target smallholder farmers try to avoid such costs. But Proximity cofounders Jim Taylor and Debbie Aung-Din Taylor believe in treating farmers not as beneficiaries who receive charity, but as customers who buy a product. This customer-focused approach reflects the Proximity ethos, Jim Taylor explained: “If I give you choice, I’m showing respect.”

Earned revenue from product and service sales accounts for 35% of Proximity Designs’ income, and that revenue structure further aligns the organization with its user base. Proximity Finance is almost entirely reliant on private capital, and in July 2020 it raised $14 million in equity. Proximity’s laser-like focus on smallholder farmers’ needs results in substantial benefits for its customers, who experience average increases in annual income of $250 to $300, depending on which Proximity product they use.

Proximity also multiplies its impact by demonstrating the viability of Myanmar’s smallholder farmers as an addressable market. Its goal is to “crowd in” for-profit companies, which have traditionally neglected those farmers. Proximity’s smallholder financing, for example, served as a proof-of-concept model that encouraged large financial institutions to compete for farmers’ business.

A paddy farmer in Magway, Myanmar, meets with members of Proximity to discuss how to address a pest attack as part of the organization’s Crop Protection service.

Photo: Proximity Designs

How We Partner

With support from King Philanthropies, Proximity Designs is expanding its customer base and adapting its product lines to meet the changing needs of smallholder farmers. One funded effort, for example, is enabling Proximity to create digital advisory services that leverage the popularity of social media in Myanmar to deliver guidance to farmers quickly and cost-effectively.

Proximity is also helping farmers respond to climate change, which is disrupting historic rainfall patterns and introducing new pests into Myanmar’s agricultural ecosystem. Thanks to services offered by Proximity and funded by King Philanthropies, farmers are diversifying their crops in ways that boost climate resiliency and ensure food security.