NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Maria Raurell is Director of Investments and Risk at MCE Social Capital. Originally from Barcelona, Spain, she has been working in the field of financial inclusion since 2011. She initially joined Oikocredit International in the Netherlands as credit analyst, promoting later to Caucasus portfolio manager, where she provided and managed debt financing to selected microfinance institutions. In 2014, she joined Enclude as inclusive finance consultant, where she conducted assignments in the fields of MSME finance, agriculture finance, water and sanitation and entrepreneurship. 

Since mid-2016 Maria has been back in Spain, where she worked as freelance consultant in the fields of financial inclusion and entrepreneurship, for a wide variety of NGOs, impact investment funds and development agencies; in countries such as Pakistan, Mexico, Côte d´Ivoire, Senegal and Benin. In Spain, she has been collaborating with Stone Soup Consulting on impact evaluations and benchmark studies; she is also one of Oportunitas Foundation’s advisor, the first grassroots social microfinance institution in Spain. Before shifting to a career in the social sector, Maria worked as a marketing trainee and sales assistant for PepsiCo and G-Star.