2026 small business champions competition: Supporting small businesses to use AI for international trade

Ganadores

Rinato Space

Rinato Space is a Zambian AI and geospatial technology company that empowers small businesses and farmers through satellite-driven insights. By transforming complex Earth observation data into accessible and affordable information on soil health, crop performance, climate risks, and land use, Rinato Space enables users to make smarter, data-driven decisions. Designed for low-connectivity environments, their AI platform is accessible via both web and USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data), helping small producers, cooperatives, agribusinesses, and institutions improve productivity, strengthen resilience, reduce risk, and participate more effectively in local and global value chains.

• Project description: The project aims to support small agricultural businesses and farmer-linked micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in using AI-driven insights to overcome information barriers that limit productivity, consistency, and access to markets. Rinato Space will deploy its AI platform to provide localized, near-real-time insights on soil conditions, crop health, climate risks, and land suitability using satellite data.

Rinato Space plans to:

• Configure AI models for key export-oriented crops and value chains.
• Deliver actionable insights and recommendations through web and USSD channels, ensuring accessibility for users in low-connectivity environments.
• Collaborate with cooperatives, aggregators, and supply chain actors to align production decisions with market demand and quality standards.
• Develop early warning and planning tools to help reduce climate-related disruptions and strengthen trade reliability.
• Build the capacity of local partners to interpret and apply AI-driven insights in business, agricultural, and trade decision-making.

The project strengthens MSME competitiveness by improving predictability, reducing losses, and enabling data-driven participation in domestic, regional, and international markets.

The project builds on Rinato Space's prior implementation of satellite-based monitoring and capacity-building initiatives with organizations such as World Vision.

Koaloo.FI

Koaloo.Fi is an award-winning ESG (environmental, social and governance) and AI-powered fintech platform that transforms global supply chains into drivers of profitability and sustainability. By addressing the US$ 7 trillion trade finance gap, Koaloo.Fi helps to make sustainable business practices scalable and profitable for MSMEs, which represent 90% of companies but are often underserved by traditional financial systems.

Recognized as "Fintech of the Year 2025", Koaloo.Fi combines verified supplier data, AI-driven coaching, and financial optimization tools to help businesses reduce risk, improve performance and unlock growth opportunities.

• Project description: The "Koaloo.Fi SME Resilience Engine" project leverages generative AI to empower MSMEs to participate more effectively in international trade. Recognizing that MSMEs face massive hurdles in ESG compliance and lack the capital for green transitions, Koaloo.Fi's project provides a scalable, AI-driven toolkit to automate complex trade and sustainability workflows.

Koaloo.Fi plans to provide:

• AI-powered supplier coaching: Deploying “GRETA”, an AI coach, to provide MSMEs with real-time guidance to improve operational performance and meet international ESG standards.
• Automated ESG compliance: Using generative AI to transform unstructured supplier data into auditable, decision-ready reports, reducing compliance time from weeks to seconds.
• Performance-linked financing: Building a transparent ecosystem where verified performance data enables financial institutions to offer MSMEs improved funding terms, rewarding sustainability and resilience.
• Supply chain visibility: Providing MSMEs with a unified view of risks and opportunities across their value chains to anticipate disruptions and optimize trade flows.

Through these solutions, Koaloo.Fi aims to shift MSMEs from a “compliance burden” model to a growth-driven approach, enabling them to stay competitive in an evolving global trade environment.

Runners-up

The Globby

Founded in 2013, İnovakademi is an Istanbul-based training and consultancy firm specializing in foreign trade and sustainable growth. The company supports SMEs with expertise in target market analysis and international trade intelligence.

As the creator of the Globby, İnovakademi combines traditional trade knowledge with AI-driven solutions to enhance the global competitiveness of small businesses. Its mission is to support MSMEs in navigating international markets more efficiently, reducing costs, and achieving scalable, sustainable growth through digital transformation and practical training.

• Project description: The Globby is an innovative AI-powered platform designed to bridge the gap between MSMEs and the complexities of international trade. Its mission is to democratize access to high-level trade intelligence, enabling small businesses to operate with the efficiency and precision of large-scale global corporations.

The Globby plans to provide:

• Advanced market analysis: Using HS code (known as GTIP) data, the system identifies high-potential export markets across 240 countries and provides data-driven market entry strategies.
• A global buyer database: The platform connects users with verified buyers and strategic trade partners across selected regions, enabling direct access to international markets.
• AI-driven communication management: The system generates personalized, culturally adapted outreach emails, improves deliverability, and automatically manages incoming inquiries to ensure no leads are missed.
• Dynamic trend tracking: Every 15 days, AI analyses global market shifts and sector trends across 240 countries, delivering timely insights for proactive decision-making.

By integrating advanced AI models, the Globby acts as a digital export assistant that reduces transaction costs, improves market intelligence, and simplifies global trade operations.

CCIT & CIPE

The Centre for International Private Enterprise (CIPE) is an international organization affiliated with the US-based National Endowment for Democracy (NED) that promotes democracy and economic development by strengthening the private sector, good governance, and market-oriented reforms through collaboration with businesses, governments and civil society.

CCIT is Colombia’s information and communications technology (ICT) industry association, representing technology companies and promoting public policy, innovation, and public-private partnerships to strengthen the country’s digital ecosystem and competitiveness.

• Project description: The project will establish a “Regional Private Sector Platform on AI for MSMEs” to support digital market integration in Latin America and help MSMEs use AI to strengthen productive capacities. The platform will provide a space for regional coordination, the exchange of best practices, and training on AI across all sectors.

CCIT & CIPE plan to:

• Launch an MSME AI toolkit: A practical package of simplified tools for the adoption of AI, risk management, cybersecurity, and data governance in the Latin American and Caribbean context.
• Develop use-case guides: Sector-specific guides with real-world examples to translate AI concepts into practical implementation for MSMEs and support regional alignment of best practices.
• Aggregate demand for AI procurement: Promote cooperative mechanisms through business chambers to enable MSMEs to access bulk purchases of AI tools and services, reducing costs and barriers to adoption.

The project also includes partner business associations in Peru (COMEX), Chile (ACTI and KODEA), and Colombia (CNC and CCB).