This report draws on the extensive experience of Elevar Equity, which has helped in conceiving the concept of Entrepreneurial Households (EHs). While observing underserved and under-appreciated households and working with approximately 50 companies, Elevar Equity identified the EH archetype. These households exhibit an enterprise-like economic model, combining multiple income sources into significant cash outflows, impacting both long and short-term prosperity.  This report was commissioned to validate over a decade’s worth of ground up observations. The Range Analysis of CTV Estimates was specifically undertaken to allow for some sensitivity analysis, given multiple variables involved in this market sizing estimate. We expect this to evolve over time as richer data sources emerge. Irrespective of the exact numbers, the focus of this report is on the commercial readiness of this market from a business and investment standpoint. praxisga.com A distinctive feature of EHs is their substantial Household Transaction Value (HTV), which better represents their economic vitality, compared to mere income levels. This vitality is also evident in their asset ownership patterns and aspirations, particularly in their substantial investment in High Priority Goods and Services (HPGS) like education, healthcare, financial services, housing, and business activities.

The OECD Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Diagnostics report introduces a novel framework and dataset to assess and compare entrepreneurial ecosystems across all 38 OECD countries. Rather than producing a single index to rank countries, the report adopts a multi dimensional approach based on three core components: inputs, outputs, and variation. Inputs cover ten essential elements—Institutions, Culture, Networks, Infrastructure, Markets, Finance, Knowledge, Talent, Leadership, and Intermediate Services—captured through composite indexes built from about 40 indicators drawn from OECD statistics and other sources. Outputs reflect entrepreneurial performance, with indicators such as startup rates and business survival. The variation dimension measures how entrepreneurship is distributed socially and regionally, with attention to inclusivity, particularly for women and distribution of startups across regions. Each dimension is tracked at three time points to monitor ecosystem evolution and progress. Designed as a policy support tool, the report provides robust, evidence based insights to identify systemic bottlenecks and guide national strategies. It aims at facilitating informed dialogue and targeted policy action to build dynamic and balanced national entrepreneurial ecosystems. Released as a pilot, this first edition lays the foundation for future iterations, with continued refinement of data and analytical depth to enhance its relevance and impact.

The global impact landscape is evolving at an unprecedented pace, driven by the urgent need to address climate change, social inequality, and sustainable economic development. As capital markets increasingly integrate environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors, impact investing has transitioned from a niche practice to a mainstream investment strategy. Governments, financial institutions, and private investors are aligning their capital with measurable social and environmental outcomes, fostering a more inclusive impact economy.

This report is intended to inform investors, policymakers, and ecosystem builders by providing actionable insights to accelerate capital deployment and drive systemic change. It highlights how impact investing is evolving across diverse country contexts – not only in developed markets, but also in emerging and developing economies, where local and international actors are co-creating ecosystems. Rather than ranking ecosystems or generating a scoreboard, the report aims to serve as an ecosystem learning tool and to build confidence in local actors and initiatives.

The report summarizes key insights from the “Access to Green Finance – Sustainability Stars” event, which brought together investors, corporates, Entrepreneur Support Organizations (ESOs), and Small and Growing Businesses (SGBs) to explore catalytic finance solutions in India’s green economy, particularly in waste management and circularity. The event featured a Corporate Dialogue that highlighted the need for flexible, blended capital approaches—combining equity, debt, and grants—while encouraging a shift from consumer-facing solutions to systems-level innovation. This was followed by an Investor Reverse Pitch, which offered SGBs insights into investor expectations and common red flags, while fostering stronger collaboration among capital providers. Overall, the event underscored the value of patient, strategic capital, and coordinated ecosystem support to scale impactful climate solutions.

This study offers a glimpse into the evolving landscape of impact capital in Malaysia. This project was initiated as an advocacy tool to help grow the impact investment movement in the country and foster meaningful conversations. While global interest in impact investing has surged, Malaysia’s ecosystem remains nascent yet brimming with potential. Our goal is to share the collective thoughts of key impact capital providers, giving you a clearer picture of where we are and where we’re headed.

Whether you’re just starting your journey in impact investing or are already making strides, our findings aim to reassure you that you’re part of a larger movement.

Our findings are accessible to all as we hope to inspire coordinated efforts that optimise resources, drive innovation, and ultimately transform the landscape of impact investing in Malaysia.

Summary

Business development service (BDS) programmes, such as accelerators and incubators, are increasingly looked to as promising ways to help entrepreneurs enhance their business skills, expand their networks, and access investment. In Fiji, there is a small but quickly growing entrepreneurial ecosystem supported by over a dozen BDS programmes. This report seeks to characterize the BDS landscape and form recommendations for its continued growth based on international research and established best practices from other ecosystems across the globe.

In this report, the authors assess the practices of Fiji’s BDS providers against the SCALE principles, a set of recommendations published in 2021 by the Argidius Foundation which reflect global best practices for BDS provision. This study identified a total of 21 BDS programmes in the Fijian ecosystem administered by 14 service providers, including eight accelerators, five incubators, and eight additional programmes such as co-working spaces, grantmaking facilities, and technical assistance. Based on desk research and interviews with programme managers, the authors assessed Fiji’s accelerator and incubator landscape as moderately applying the SCALE principles.

International Non-Governmental Organizations (INGOs) have traditionally played a crucial role in addressing global challenges, providing humanitarian aid and fostering sustainable development. By leveraging their extensive networks, local knowledge and deep-rooted trust within communities, they have delivered critical services and implemented development projects in the world’s most underserved areas. Some of the largest INGOs exemplify this reach: in 2022 alone, Oxfam impacted 15.6 million people, the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement supported 160.7 million globally and CARE International reached 170 million, illustrating the scale at which they mobilize resources and deliver transformative outcomes. Their mandates and effective use of resources have allowed them to achieve investor additionality — generating outcomes that would not have occurred without their intervention. They have pursued this additional impact through both financial additionality, such as providing grants or running programs with a catalytic mindset, and non-financial additionality, including offering technical assistance.

As readers engage with this report, it is important to consider three contextual factors: 1) The sample size may not adequately capture the wide range of viewpoints of all INGOs involved in impact investing, even though it serves as a representative sample of those operating in Europe; 2) The available literature on INGOs engaging in impact investing is currently limited, which may restrict the depth of our analysis; 3) The core constituency of INGOs we consulted understands additionality in a way that aligns closely with our definition11 and considers themselves as pursuers of additionality through their activities, both in financial and non-financial ways. While we acknowledge that this concept may be relatively unfamiliar to some INGOs that are newly exploring the impact investing space, we will consistently employ this definition throughout the paper to maintain clarity and coherence in our analysis.

The key role of guarantees is to crowd in investors and open new markets. This is achieved by:

• solving collateral deficiency challenges;
• closing the gap between perceived and actual risk; and
• absorbing portions of risk so that lenders can enter new markets with lower risk

However, guarantees are not a silver bullet to bypass credit processes e.g., business documentation (registration, business plans, financials, etc), nor do they serve as an exemption to finance unbankable deals. Measuring the effectiveness of guarantees is not standardized and the context of the guarantee (e.g., sector, region, lender) must be considered when comparing metrics such as utilization, catalyzed capital, or additionality. While the ultimate aim of guarantees is to be made redundant, this goal is unlikely to be met in the short term for agriculture as a sector and in SSA given the sector’s profile i.e., mainly fueled by smallholder farmers who are deemed risky because of informality, largely non-commercial farm models and the sector’s vulnerabilities resulting from climate risk. There are several opportunities for donors to support lending to agriculture across the value chain to build the market using an ecosystem approach to increase agri-lending.

Exploring the experiences of women entrepreneurs in low and middle income countries in 2024

Despite facing structural and individual barriers to business growth, women in low and middle income countries (LMICs) continue to carve out their own economic opportunities. Many are running businesses, often leveraging new technologies to expand their reach. Women are among the owners of 47% of businesses in Latin America and the Caribbean, 44% in East Asia and the Pacific, and 30% in Sub-Saharan Africa. In emerging economies, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) contribute 40% of the gross domestic product (GDP), underscoring their vital role in economic development. However, women entrepreneurs face systematic disadvantages in accessing capital, growing business networks, and fully participating in the digital economy.

In recent years, women entrepreneurs have increasingly embraced digital technologies, with social media emerging as a powerful tool for expanding their businesses, building customer relationships, and boosting visibility. Beyond social media, many are adopting e-commerce, AI-driven business tools, and online financial services. Yet significant challenges remain, including insufficient resources, limited technical skills, risks of gender-based harassment, privacy concerns, and digital exclusion. These obstacles restrict women’s ability to fully capitalize on the benefits of technologies that could support their business growth.

This report provides fresh insights from an online survey of 2,870 women entrepreneurs from 96 LMICs, highlighting the key trends, challenges, and urgent actions required to create a more inclusive, secure, and healthy business environment for women-led enterprises. This year’s survey is an in-depth examination of key business technology issues explored in last year’s report, spotlighting how digital finance and social media are reshaping business for women.

This country report explores the evolving landscape of social procurement in Malaysia, focusing on how impact-driven businesses, including social enterprises, engage with corporate clients and the challenges they face in supplying their products and services. Social procurement, which leverages purchasing power to generate both social and environmental benefits alongside economic value, has gained increasing attention globally in recent years. Recognizing the need for greater market understanding, the Malaysia Impact Alliance (MYImpact) and Yunus Social Business (YSB) initiated this project to provide visibility for impact-driven businesses seeking corporate buyers and to analyze their needs in supplying to corporations.

The key findings of this study highlight that most impact-driven businesses in Malaysia operate on a small scale, facing significant barriers in accessing financing and meeting the operational standards required by corporate buyers. Limited resources, capacity constraints, and lack of long-term visibility and commitment from corporate clients often hinder their ability to secure sustainable corporate partnerships. Finally, the report suggests recommendations to enhance social procurement in Malaysia. These include conducting market research and matchmaking events to connect impact-driven businesses with corporate buyers, facilitating stronger B2B partnerships, a capacity-building program to support impact-driven businesses in enhancing their B2B sales capabilities by providing expert insights and peer advice on positioning themselves as preferred suppliers and engaging effectively with corporate clients.