DBJ Comes to The Rescue of Small Business

In 2017, when One on One Educational Services was facing financial challenges, the company’s Founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Ricardo Allen, went to the Development Bank of Jamaica (DBJ) for assistance.

He tells JIS News that at the time “we were running out of money” and he had made the tough decision to close the physical office space and operate remotely.

The DBJ came to the rescue, providing Mr. Allen with financial support and guidance, which not only enabled him to rebuild but also to grow his business beyond Jamaica.

One on One now has contracts with clients across the Caribbean and the United States.

Mr. Allen tells JIS News that One on One was able to fund the development of software “that now the Government of Bahamas is using, Government of St. Kitts, all of these folks. I just got my first contract out of California, in the United States of America”.

One on One Education Services is among MSMEs that have benefited from billions of dollars in funding support to improve and grow its operations through a range of products and services offered by the DBJ.

As innovative technology company established in 2013, One on One provides a range of digital education and training solutions.

The company, located in New Kingston, has built out an award-winning online learning platform, with personalised courses for students, as well as corporations and governments across the Caribbean.

Clients benefit from e-learning courses, online training, instructional design services, and expert tutors and trainers. Some 400,000 students have been served through the online platform.

Mr. Allen says that the DBJ has been with the company “every step of the way”.

He recalls that “when we started the business and started the online learning platform, we felt like we needed money. We raised money from the market and we got investors, but we quickly ran out. With this big idea, we went to the DBJ, and they supported us [under] the Innovation Grant from New Ideas to Entrepreneurship (IGNITE) programme.”

IGNITE enables Jamaican entrepreneurs, particularly MSMEs with innovative business ideas, to access grant funds to develop and commercialise their products and services.

Mr. Allen notes that once he received the grant from the DBJ, there was a team of people that provided the guidance needed.

“When I sat with DBJ in that board room, they have this ability to just sit and listen to my crazy ideas and their attitude is ‘how can we help to support?’. And so, from day one, when we got that IGNITE grant of $2.5 million, it did wonders for us.

“That allowed us to create a technology and a software or online learning platform that we could now deliver to anybody anywhere,” he says.

One on One has also received loan support through the DBJ’s Credit Enhancement Facility (CEF).

This is a risk-sharing arrangement under which the Bank provides partial guarantees to approved financial institutions to enable them to increase lending to micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs).

With the onset of the coronavirus (COVID-19) and students studying online, Mr. Allen again approached the DBJ for assistance in developing an innovation, which will provide people with access to the Internet, particularly those in remote rural areas.

“So, we created this thing called Internet-in-a-Box. It’s really a small device, and what we do is download a version of the Internet on this device and we deploy it in rural Jamaica,” Mr. Allen notes.

“I grew up in Jackson Town, Trelawny, and if you put that [device] in Jackson Town, the students would gather around it, just like they do with Wi-Fi. They can consume any Internet-based resources on that device, without the need for Internet,” he explains further.

“We needed to bring that to the market, and we went back to the DBJ and said we have an innovation, and we need the funding to go. They had the perfect opportunity, which is this Innovation Grant [Fund] and we applied for it,” he adds.

The Innovation Grant is a product under the Boosting Innovation, Growth and Entrepreneurship Ecosystems (BIGEE) Programme, that provides grants for innovation projects by medium-sized enterprises.

These grants are used to assist in the development and commercialisation of new products, services, processes, or new business models.

Mr. Allen tells JIS News that the grant process was rigorous “because they [DBJ) wanted to ensure that whatever they are putting their money towards is something that is going to lead to nation-building. So, we accessed the grant, and we are now in the process of producing these devices that we’re going to deploy across Jamaica”.

For the Innovation Grant, the company had to provide evidence that it was making more than $75 million in revenues consistently over the past three years and also demonstrate that the product could be commercialised.

“Our product is in the process of being commercialised, so it’s not yet ready for the market; it’s something that we are building. The product had to be needed by the market and the DBJ looked at this and the next thing they looked at was the quality of the team behind this. Could they execute on this promise, because many of us have ideas but cannot execute on that promise,” Mr. Allen points out.

Meanwhile, the CEO told JIS News that he values not only the financial support provided to One on One by the DBJ over the years but also the mentorship and advice, which have allowed his company to take advantage of the opportunities to grow.

He recalls that five years ago, when he made the decision to operate the company from home “the DBJ team came into my bungalow, and they sat down in a little corner and they …. worked through every problem I was having. They gave me all the solutions. They have never left me.”

“They have a team of people who stand head and shoulder with you to ensure it is done and is executed, plus they also connect you with their network of people and organisation to give you that support,” he notes.

Mr. Allen notes that with the assistance from DBJ, One on One has become a truly regional company, noting that “90 per cent of our clients are outside of Jamaica”.

“We would not have been able to do it without the vision, without the financing, the mentorship from DBJ,” he says.