The global micro, small, and medium enterprise (MSME) landscape faces a significant finance gap in the mid-late growth stage of innovation. This stage is critical as it is often the time when viable ideas turn into profit-making businesses. This financing gap is seemingly impenetrable for some of the current development finance actors who are unwilling to accept the marginally lower financial returns inherent to this critical stage of innovation.

This brief looks at how blended finance tools can be used to structure an appropriate investment vehicle that can catalyze private capital and bridge the gap between the high-risk and low-risk stages of innovation.

The New Missing Middle in Development Finance

The New Missing Middle in Development Finance

CSIS