Capital for the missing middle.

The gap

Finance is easier to get for large companies and for micro businesses than it is for the companies in between. The industry calls that gap the missing middle. Small and medium-sized enterprises in developing markets face regulatory barriers as well. Those two problems together hold back the businesses that create the most work.

The numbers make the case. In high income countries SMEs supply 60% of the jobs. In low income countries they supply 30%. We treat that difference as a commercial opportunity, not a charitable one.

What we invest in

We finance companies that already sell to paying customers. We do not fund an idea. A company in our range usually has three things: real revenue, a market it understands, and a management team that wants help as well as money.

We size the facility to the business in front of us. Where a second investor makes the deal stronger, we co-invest. The AMFRI facility was a joint ticket with Yield Fund Uganda, and that structure paid for a processing plant neither party would have funded alone.

The instruments

Three structures cover almost everything we do:

• Debt. For a company with predictable cash flow and a defined use of funds.
• Equity. For a company where the growth needs patient money and a shared risk.
• The service-backed loan. Our own instrument. It bundles the finance with the services the management is missing, in one agreement.

What happens after we invest

Our people stay in the business. Four services run alongside the money: financial management, ESG, marketing and sales, and market research. They start 6 to 12 months before an investment and continue for up to four years after it. You pay an agreed fee for that work. It is a service, not a favour.

An ESG review is part of every deal. We select companies that operate responsibly, and we help them turn that into a commercial advantage with the buyers who ask for it.