Scaling Access to Finance for Early-Stage Enterprises in Emerging Markets: Lessons from the Field

Commissioned on behalf of: Dutch Good Growth Fund (DGGF) / Investment funds local SMEs 

The report seeks to explore how to improve the scalability and viability of early-stage finance provision, thereby reducing the need for philanthropic capital and subsidies to the local providers of finance and support to early-stage enterprises. To this end, DGGF used a landscape exercise to define and prioritize “archetypes of early-stage finance provision” as the focus of this report. They selected business accelerators, business angel networks and venture capital funds - as three key archetypical models - as the main models to be studied in more detail, together with the broader category of supplemental “non-traditional” debt options. They selected and studied 15 early-stage finance providers in detail. They discussed their initial findings from the in-depth research with 40 field-builders in a workshop during which participants shared experiences, insights and perspectives, and helped to challenge emerging conclusions and identify key points of attention to address in finalizing the report.

Read full report here. 

Specialty Coffee Transaction Guide
by Transparent Trade Coffe (Emory University)

As volatile commodity prices continue to hover at historically low levels, industry leaders at various points along the supply chain are talking about the need to buffer the women and men who grow specialty coffees from price references that come from commodity markets.

This project relies on a progressive group of data donors – exporters, importers, roasters, and other support organizations – who provide detailed contract data covering specialty coffee transactions from recent harvests.  Researchers at Emory University use this anonymized information to create tables that describe the distributions of recent prices for green (unroasted) specialty coffees.

Social Entrepreneurship at the Margins

by Thane Kreiner, PhD and Marie Haller

Last year, Miller Center accompanied 18 early-stage social enterprises led by or dedicated to serving refugees, migrants, and trafficking survivors in their pioneering Social Entrepreneurship at the Margins (SEM) accelerator program.  This report illustrates the clear and urgent need for bottom-up, enterprise level approaches, and highlights organizations that are already addressing these challenges in innovative ways.

Scaling up MENA SMEs: How a Handful of Firms can Fastforward Economic Growth

by Mahoumad Makki, Alice Klat, Melissa Rizk, Amr Goussous, and Reem Goussous

This report identifies the value of and support necessary to assist SMEs in scaling up in their local markets across the Middle East and North Africa. It further identifies priority support areas for policymakers including business fundamentals, business propellers, demand creators and country readiness that, when appropriately addressed, can propel local economic growth.

Landscape Mapping for Impact Measurement and Management in South Africa 

By Genesis Analytics and Impact Amplifier

Through the Catalyst Fund for Impact Measurement in Africa, supported by the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID), the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE) South Africa chapter commissioned Genesis Analytics and Impact Amplifier to conduct research into the impact measurement and management (IMM) landscape in South Africa. Mixed research methods were used to engage investors, intermediaries and investees in South Africa. The infographic presents key findings in an interactive format, accompanied by supplementary guide. These publications explore the current IMM landscape in South Africa, why and how impact is measured, the benefits and challenges of measurement and management, and how the data is used and reported. Through this publication, the authors and funders of this study aim to catalyse conversations and action, towards strengthening IMM practices in South Africa.

Click here for the supplementary guide

Click here for the infographic