Opportunities to engage deeply and meaningfully with our peers and partners as one community are rare. When provided with a safe place to reflect, get challenged and learn, ideas and alignment emerge towards a common goal. We will engage throughout the day through collaborative work towards defining the path to scaling SME finance in emerging markets over the next 5 years.

Speaker: Master of Ceremony, Rens van Tilburg, Sustainable Finance Lab member

The more diverse and conducive an ecosystem, the higher chances of success for local businesses. This community has been nurturing emerging markets entrepreneurial ecosystems by backing local finance providers. We will examine the results of these efforts looking at how impact ecosystems have evolved over the past decade and identifying where to focus efforts for the next 5 years.

Speaker: Alasdair Maclay, Chief Strategy Officer, GSG Impact

With DGGF, the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) initiated an innovative contribution to SME finance in emerging markets. Managed by a private investment manager, with a broad geographical focus, sector agnostic but with key strategic priorities and a strong innovation, risk and learning appetite.
We will reflect on DGGF as an innovative development instrument and hear what is top of mind for MFA to accelerate further development.

Speaker: Steven Collet, Deputy Director-General International Cooperation, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands

Growing a sustainable and impactful business is a long-term play. From ideation to scale, a founder will be challenged and have to constantly adapt, having the right partners along this journey is critical for success. We will hear the story of what it took Ezhil to build String Bio over the past decade and what is ahead of them.

Speaker: Ezhil Subbian, CEO, String Bio

A single founder can inspire an entire generation of other entrepreneurs. When their journeys take them from founder to accelerator leader to investor it can spur widespread ecosystem growth. We will dive into the data-backed strategies for putting founders at the center of long-term impact, reflecting on the past 10 years to explore how the seeds that founders plant today can accelerate the transformation of economies over the next 5 years.

Speaker: Leah Barto, Sr Research Director, Endeavor

We will learn from a local SME that has made significant contributions to inclusive growth through job creation for low-skilled employees.

Fireside chat between: MC & Adetayo Bamiduro, CEO and Cofounder of MAX

Many lessons were learnt from deploying patient capital into local SME finance pioneers in emerging markets over the past decade. Capturing success factors behind the realization of track records, the conduciveness of entrepreneurial ecosystems including in fragile contexts and the nurturing of a diverse SME finance ecosystem is critical to focus the work of this community moving forward. We will hear about the assumptions from 10 years ago that were validated or refuted, more or less successful risk/return/impact approaches deployed and the do’s and don’t’s of SME finance in emerging markets.

Moderator: Kusi Hornberger, Scaling Impact

Speakers: Clemens Gerteiser, DGGF
Sarah Marchand, BII
Sapna Shah, Novastar Ventures

Reference material:

• Breaking the mold, beyond the standard venture capital and private equity models, DAI, 2019

• Investing in fragile and conflict affected States, FMO, 2021

• Banking on SMEs: Driving Growth, Creating Jobs, IFC, 2022

• Impact linked compensation, The ImPact and the Tipping Point Fund on Impact Investing, 2023

• How and why we finance SMEs, BII, 2024

• DGGF – Financing Local SMEs – Impact report, DGGF, 2024 (to be published in October 2024

We will learn from a local SME that has shown outstanding dedication to contributing to climate change adaptation and mitigation by implementing innovative solutions, practices, and technologies that reduce environmental impact and promote sustainability.

Fireside chat between: MC and Juan Carlos Abdala, CTO & Cofounder of Kilimo