Innovations and social enterprises can disappear — not because of a bad idea or lack of effort, but rather due to insufficient seed capital to grow and scale.
The international development community and philanthropic dollars have traditionally funded social entrepreneurs to test an idea or innovation. However, what’s often missing is the money necessary to take that idea, bring it to scale and access commercial capital markets for long-term sustainability. This challenge is called the “pioneer gap” or the “valley of death.”
So how do you bridge that gap?
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About the author
Adva Saldinger@AdvaSal
Adva Saldinger is a Senior Reporter at Devex where she covers development finance, as well as U.S. foreign aid policy. Adva explores the role the private sector and private capital play in development and authors the weekly Devex Invested newsletter bringing the latest news on the role of business and finance in addressing global challenges. A journalist with more than 10 years of experience, she has worked at several newspapers in the U.S. and lived in both Ghana and South Africa.
