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Small Foundation is deepening its commitment to Growth Firms Alliance (GFA), backing a new phase of work that is helping to shape how funders can more effectively deploy knowledge and capital to support growth firms and power Africa’s economic future.
Why growth firms, and why now?
Growth Firms – companies with the potential and intention to at least double in size – are the engines of inclusive economic growth. Evidence consistently shows that when they gain access to appropriate finance, effective business support, and enabling policies, they generate extraordinary returns in job creation and productivity. Yet global initiatives, investment support, and policies explicitly targeting growth firms remain under-resourced.
GFA exists to turn that evidence into shared intelligence, helping funders learn from one another and make better decisions together.
What GFA has shown is possible
Launched in 2023 as a lean, funder-led alliance, GFA brought together a small group of private philanthropic foundations including the Argidius, IKEA, Lemelson, and Visa Foundations to test a simple proposition: that coordinated philanthropy can engage more effectively with one another and other larger capital providers.
The pilot phase showed the power of investing in coordination and collaboration. Through regular meetings, GFA members have been able to sharpen coordination between themselves. They have also been able to build relationships with diverse capital providers such as other global philanthropies, government bilateral donors, DFIs, multilaterals, and other multistakeholder collaborative initiatives.
During this pilot phase, Small Foundation has invested in new partnerships that are also supported by other GFA members, such as the global network of incubators Pollinate Impact, the venture studio Delta 40 and innovative Ghana-based fund of funds Ci Gaba. GFA has focused on evidence and opportunities around platform models for intermediating capital for SMEs, local capital mobilisation, and enterprise support models.
What Phase 2 aims to build
With this next phase, GFA is transitioning from an experimental platform to a more structured operating model without losing the agility that made the pilot phase work. Priorities include strengthening member collaboration, deepening co-investment activity, and broadening external engagement.
Small Foundation’s support over the next three years is part of how we invest in the infrastructure of ecosystems, aiming to improve the coordination, knowledge-sharing, and trust-building that makes other capital more effective. In GFA, we see a unique alliance that makes that full range of capital work harder, ensuring capital of all kinds is better coordinated, better targeted, and more likely to attract co-investors who might otherwise hold back.
“I am delighted that Small Foundation will continue its core support for GFA. Small Foundation is truly a leader in taking catalytic approaches to supporting growth firm ecosystems, and I could not be more excited to continue to play a role in helping to amplify the impact of the Foundation’s incredible work.”
– Matt Guttentag, Alliance Manager
We are proud to be a founding member of GFA and look forward to what the next phase can unlock, for growth firms, for the ecosystem around them, and for the communities these firms bring value to.
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