The Land Bank Handed Founders the Funder’s Scorecard. Here Are the 10 Things You’re Really Judged On.

In Part 1, we learned that funders can’t back a business they can’t see. In Part 2, the Land Bank’s Litha Kutta showed exactly what they read once they can. The session was about agriculture — the lesson belongs to every founder. (Part 2 of the Innovation Bridge Portal’s series covering the SME Funding Summit 2026.)

In Part 1 of this series, FinFind’s Darlene Menzies left us with a hard truth: most small businesses never get funded because they’re invisible to lenders. Become visible, she said, and the money follows.

So what happens the moment a funder can finally see you? What, exactly, are they reading?

At the SME Funding Summit 2026, Litha Kutta who leads partnerships at the Land Bank answered that with a candour founders rarely get. He didn’t come to pitch a product. He came to show the room what actually happens inside the building when your application lands on a desk. Here’s what he revealed.

A funder unlike any other

First, know who you’re dealing with. The Land Bank started in 1912 and is the only development finance institution in Africa dedicated exclusively to agriculture, it funds nothing else. It exists to do two things: grow South Africa’s agricultural industry, and make finance affordable enough for farmers commercial banks won’t touch.

It funds black and white farmers alike, a book that has moved from 0% black ownership in 1994 to roughly 48% black and 52% white today. And Kutta came armed with data most people never see. Of the wheat in your bread, just 1% comes from black farmers. Potatoes, 5%. Maize, under 6%. He didn’t share those numbers to depress the room he shared them to reframe them. Underproduction, for an entrepreneur, is another word for opportunity.

The Land Bank’s edge is blended finance — a grant bundled with a loan. For black farmers, the grant scales with the loan: roughly 60% on loans under R1 million, 50% between R1 million and R10 million, and 40% between R10 million and R50 million. There’s a dedicated agro-energy product carrying a 10% state grant to soften rising energy costs, and a new wines-and-spirits facility built with European partners who want both the wine and the transformation. The quiet genius of the grant portion? It can stand in for the “own contribution” most funders demand which we’ll come back to.

The partnership that opens two doors

Here’s the model that sets the Land Bank apart, and it’s the heart of the session. Kutta leads a partnership team whose job is to solve the problems that lock farmers out before finance is even on the table.

Picture a farmer in KwaZulu-Natal who wants to supply a major retailer. Good product, real demand but no water rights, or missing certification, so they don’t qualify. Kutta’s team goes to the retailer and asks a simple question: you need suppliers, we find suppliers — can we collaborate? Then they go to work on the barriers: water rights (the Land Bank is working with the Department of Water and Sanitation to speed up applications), land access (negotiated with traditional leaders, because unused land is worthless land), and the rest.

That solves the conundrum every founder eventually hits: you have to qualify twice. Once for the market — the buyer has requirements. And once for the funder — the bank has its own. The Land Bank’s model helps you clear the first door (a contract), then walks you through the second (the funding), then adds post-investment support so you actually deliver and repay. And repayment, as Menzies foreshadowed in Part 1, lifts your credit score which opens refinancing, and suddenly the commercial banks who wouldn’t look at you start circling. That’s exactly what a development finance institution is for: taking the risk a commercial bank won’t, until you’re a risk it will.

The scorecard: 10 things you’re judged on before you say a word

Then Kutta did the thing everyone should screenshot. He walked through the elements a funder weighs on every single application. There are ten and it’s worth noticing that nearly every one starts with the same letter, which makes them easy to remember.

• Character. Integrity, credit history, reputation, disclosure. This was the surprise of the session the first thing on the list isn’t money, it’s whether you can be trusted. Check your credit score (it’s free once a year), fix what you can, and disclose the rest up front.
• Capability. Can you actually run this? If not, have you built a team, a mentor, or a joint-venture partner who can? You don’t need every skill yourself, you need to demonstrate access to it. Training and mentorship count as proof you’re building it.
• Collateral. Lenders rarely do unsecured funding. The catch: assets you haven’t valued and registered can’t be pledged. Register and value them, bring a guarantor, or take out credit-guarantee insurance (typically around 3% of the amount guaranteed).
• Contribution. Your “own contribution” to the deal. This is where blended finance shines: the grant portion can count as your contribution, so the Land Bank doesn’t ask for more. No cash of your own? Partner with someone who contributes or guarantees it — in exchange for a share of the revenue.
• Compliance. Two separate kinds, and founders confuse them: market compliance (what a buyer like a major retailer demands) and funder compliance (what the bank demands). Sort your registrations, licences and sector rules and consider a pre-audit to find your weaknesses before the real audit does.
• Clients. Who are your buyers, how solid is the contract, and how reliable is the counterparty? A direct contract with a credible client beats a sub-contract handed down by someone who may never pay you.
• Capacity. Your genuine ability to service the debt. Funders zero in on two ratios above all which is the debt-service cover ratio and the interest-cover ratio. Inflated revenue won’t help you here; proof you can meet the repayments will.
• Conditions. The macro environment you operate in — input costs, interest rates, global shocks. Show that you understand what could hit your business, and that you have a plan to mitigate it.
• Climate. In agriculture especially, climate risk is not a question of if, but when. Insurance and climate-smart practices signal that you’ve priced the risk in rather than hoped it away.
• Consistency. Funders lend over time, so they back steady performers over up-and-down ones. Consistent trading and repayment behaviour is the pattern they’re actually buying.

The move most founders miss

Here’s the insight that ties it together. Not every funder weighs these ten the same way. One bank obsesses over capability; another cares most about your client base; a third wants collateral above all. Kutta’s advice was blunt and brilliant: before you apply, work out what that specific funder cares about most and tailor your story to fit their view of risk.

That isn’t gaming the system. It’s speaking the funder’s language. Do the homework on each element, be transparent about your weak spots before they’re discovered, and walk in with a story built for the person across the desk. As Kutta put it, the person deciding your application is taking these ten things seriously so the gap between funded and rejected is often just whether you did too.

The bottom line

Part 1 was about becoming visible. Part 2 is about what they see when they look. The funder’s scorecard isn’t a secret and it isn’t unfair — it’s a checklist you can prepare for, element by element. Character, capability, collateral, contribution, compliance, clients, capacity, conditions, climate, consistency. Master the ten, learn which ones your funder weights, and you stop hoping for a yes and start engineering one.

This is Part 2 of the Innovation Bridge Portal’s coverage of the SME Funding Summit 2026, hosted by SME South Africa. Next in the series: we move from how funders assess you to how investors actually think including the sessions on the investor’s mind and bootstrapping for growth. Follow along so you’re ready for the room your business is walking into next.