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?