Small Enterprise Assistance Funds
Small Enterprise Assistance Funds (SEAF) provides growth capital and operational support to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in emerging markets to build climate resilience, food security, and inclusion. SEAF’s global reach, on-the-ground local presence, and proactive business model enable entrepreneurs to accelerate their businesses’ growth and profitability while achieving meaningful and measurable impact. With over 32 years’ experience, SEAF has shown that impact investing and maximizing performance complement each other—we can do good and realize strong financial returns.
Our Vision
SEAF envisions a sustainable and inclusive world where entrepreneurs everywhere have the capital, tools, and support they need to transform their businesses and increase the shared prosperity of their communities.
Founded in 1989 as the private equity investment subsidiary of the international development organization CARE, SEAF (“Small Enterprise Assistance Funds”) evolved in 1995 into an independent organization specializing in the sponsorship and management of investment funds targeting growth-oriented, emerging enterprises located in countries underserved by traditional sources of capital. SEAF pursues high impact economic development through the investment of risk capital in entrepreneurs, coupled with active business partnership and the transfer of knowledge and networks developed over 32 years of operation.
SEAF has an extensive track record of establishing local fund management capacity, and in investing in SMEs in emerging markets in Eastern Europe, Latin America, Asia and Africa. Over the past three decades, SEAF has managed more than 40 funds and founded 14 Centers for Entrepreneurship and Executive Development (CEED) across 33 countries. SEAF has made more than 430 risk capital investments in entrepreneurs whose products and services create more equitable, sustainable, and financially stable communities, while generating positive returns for our investors, creating the efficiency, accountability, and sustainability of our process.
SEAF’s Approach to Impact
Traditional Funds
The core SEAF product is the traditional Private Equity Impact fund. Through these vehicles, SEAF seeks double bottom line impact – market rate financial returns coupled with social and environmental impact. With a global network of more than twenty offices staffed with experienced investment professionals and supported by a US-based back office team, SEAF is leader in the PE Impact Fund space.
Mission Funds
SEAF is a pioneer in leading mission-driven fund solutions for global partners. Working on an ad hoc basis with leading development finance institutions, social organizations, and diaspora groups, SEAF has developed and managed investment vehicles that help organizations achieve their mandates on a local level, providing partners with professional management and impact results in the their target regions and sectors.
Entrepreneur Development
Through targeted grant programs, SEAF has worked with various organizations to develop entrepreneurial ecosystems across the globe. From our renowned Centers for Entrepreneurship and Executive Development (CEED) programs, to work with various US and Global agencies, SEAF is a reliable partner for organizations seeking entrepreneur-focused development solutions.
Defining SME Investing
Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) generally occupy the space between micro-enterprises and large corporations. An often ill-defined space, definitions of what constitutes an SME vary greatly across industries, governments and financial institutions. The most commonly accepted definitions focus on the number of people a company employs or the company’s annual revenue (turnover). Using these conventional categories, the companies that SEAF invests in generally employ between 20 and 250 people and have annual revenues of between $200,000 and $15 million; however, these ranges differ greatly for different investment vehicles, industry sectors and countries.
The Missing Middle
We believe that SMEs are vital to the health and stability of any nation. They traditionally constitute the largest portion of the employment base, hire the greatest number of new employees, and provide the majority of a country’s goods and services. Many developing countries lack a vibrant small business sector, and, as a consequence, a growing middle-income population. And yet despite their importance, SMEs in emerging markets frequently suffer from insufficient access to financing, preventing these businesses from expanding their production and making a larger social and economic impact.
Entrepreneurs seeking financing in these markets are up against the perception of local commercial banks that SMEs are too ‘risky’ for traditional loans, and yet they are also too large for the growing number of microfinance programs. This gap in financing leads to what has increasingly been referred to as the missing middle. In SEAF’s experience, the lack of risk capital to the missing middle substantially diminishes the growth potential of these small and medium enterprises and, consequentially, has a profound negative impact on employment, the development of a middle class, and tax revenues that are essential to a country’s development of their social sectors. A vibrant middle economy is a key element in job creation, on the job training, poverty reduction, wealth creation, sustainable economic growth, and stability.
The SME Opportunity
SEAF’s experience is that direct investment in SMEs supports sustainable economic development. We have seen first-hand that facilitating the growth of these companies by providing access to risk capital and business assistance can empower a company to overcome the impediments to its growth and lead to its production of higher value-added products or services for both domestic and international consumers, while accelerating the development of its surrounding community. SME investment leverages promising businesses to catalyze socioeconomic growth and entrepreneurship in local communities and markets. When done correctly and sustainably, such investment also produces significant returns for our investors.
SEAF’s impact strategy is led by its mission – to “Improve Lives and Communities Through Entrepreneur-Focused Investment” – and is driven by five pillars of activity:
> Providing risk capital to growth stage, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in emerging and frontier markets, seeking both financial returns & significant social and environmental impact.
> Targeting underserved markets.
> Delivering value creation support to investees to improve company performance.
> Making transparent, ethical and high-impact investments by promoting high ESG standards.
> Sponsoring Centers for Entrepreneurship and Executive Development (CEED) which provide training, education, peer networking, global access to entrepreneur-backed SMEs.
> SEAF has a dedicated impact team that is responsible for working with all local fund managers to target, measure and communicate the impact which each such fund or facility seeks to achieve.
With over 30 years of experience in SME investing, SEAF is intimately aware of the challenges faced by entrepreneurs in the management of their businesses.
SEAF found that entrepreneurs were generally not as equipped to deal with rapid business growth. They frequently lacked knowledge and tools to assess new markets and struggled to gain access to capital. Entrepreneurs also lacked the right networks with other entrepreneurs who had experience entering regional and international markets bringing their businesses to scale.
CEED was created to address these challenges by enlisting successful entrepreneurs to mentor those looking to grow their businesses. CEED was developed using a peer to peer model where entrepreneurs would share their experiences, help others overcome challenges, and develop trust in others in the network.
CONTACT SEAF:
SEAF Headquarters
1500 K Street NW
Suite 375
Washington, D.C. 20005
U.S.A.
Email: contactus@seaf.com
Phone: 1-202-450-1630
Registered 501(c)(3) | EIN: 13-3535334
