Grassroots Business Fund

About

Grassroots Business Fund | Empower Growth Today 0 Skip to Content Open Menu Close Menu Open Menu Close Menu Capital and capacity for growing enterprises since 2004, with a focus on Africa. Across Africa, Asia, and Latin America, the pattern is the same. Missing-middle enterprises are too large for microfinance, too early for commercial banks, and fail, not because they lack funding, but because they receive funding without the operational infrastructure to deploy it. Over 20 years and 600+ investments, we’ve built the model that changes that equation: structured capital paired with hands-on technical assistance, designed around how African SMEs actually grow. We are not a startup fund discovering impact. We are a platform that has financed, supported, and scaled enterprises across East Africa for two decades, and we’ve built the systems, the team, and the evidence base to prove what works. After 600+ investments, we’ve learned that capital without capability is the most common way investments fail in underserved markets. Our model exists because we watched it happen and built systems to prevent it. What 20 years have taught us We operate three connected windows. Our programs window supports early-stage enterprises with financing and structured business support. Our investment window provides patient mezzanine capital to enterprises ready for growth financing. Technical assistance cuts across both, strengthening financial systems, operations, and governance at every stage. The

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