While microfinance and small-and-medium-enterprise development are now bustling fields of activity worldwide, important challenges remain in the quest to achieve maximum impact in reducing poverty and improving lives. The advice and credit provided to emerging businesses often don’t reach far into the riskier countries, industries, and early-stage situations that need the assistance most and, if successful, could have the greatest benefit in terms of creating jobs and wealth. There are also missed opportunities to incent the recipient businesses to improve practices that significantly affect their employees’ lives.

R4D is exploring ways to fill those gaps, not through the conventional routes that others have taken (there are already more than enough “new” funds investing in SMEs), but rather by partnering up with investor groups where their transactional expertise and our complementary strengths in other areas prove to be a very productive fit together.