Current partners
The Collaborative for Frontier Finance (CFF) is a multi-stakeholder initiative working to increase access to capital for small and growing businesses (SGBs) in emerging markets. It brings together local capital providers, investors, development agencies, funders, and ecosystem builders to accelerate financing solutions that address systemic barriers and expand the flow of capital to the ‘missing middle’.
CFF builds and empowers networks, strengthens capacity, and implements market-based initiatives that foster peer learning and collective action.
Small Foundation provides core funding to CFF, including support for the Early Stage Capital Providers (ESCP) network. In 2022, we supported CFF’s annual convening in Dar es Salaam, and in 2025 announced a new partnership to strengthen the ESCP network.
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www.frontierfinance.orgNetwork Spotlight – Impact in 2025
In 2025, the Collaborative for Frontier Finance (CFF) strengthened its role as a connector, knowledge hub, and market builder for the Early-Stage Capital Providers (ESCP) Network, a community of locally rooted fund managers and ecosystem actors working to expand access to finance for small and growing businesses across Africa and the MENA region. The network grew to more than 140 individuals representing over 100 organisations, with CFF facilitating 19 convenings, working groups, weaving calls, and other engagement activities that created regular opportunities for peer learning, collaboration, and exchange.
The cornerstone of the year was the 2025 Annual Convening in Naivasha, Kenya, which brought together 92 participants, including 60 fund managers from 23 African countries alongside ecosystem partners and limited partners, and welcomed first-time participation from the World Bank and WE-Fi. Priorities emerging from the convening informed subsequent working groups, Learning Lab research, and Capital Linkages initiatives throughout the year. Through its Learning Lab, CFF published the 2025 State of Play on Small Business Growth Funds, drawing on a survey of 104 fund managers representing approximately US$2.25 billion in target AUM, and developed a stage-based segmentation framework spanning concept, pilot, implementation, and scale. Additional knowledge products included the Convening Learning Brief, Foundations of Growth (with ARIA’s DFI collective of BII, FMO, and Proparco), Concessional Capital for Agri-SME Funds (with ISF Advisors), Venture in Africa (co-published with NSSF Uganda and First Circle Capital), and the CCX Women SME Segmentation Toolkit. CFF also partnered with ADAP Advisory to pilot a fundraising capacity-building programme that strengthened fund managers’ engagement with private investors while informing the future design of its LAUNCH+ initiative.
Under its Capital Linkages pillar, CFF began laying the groundwork for expanding domestic institutional capital by engaging more than 25 African pension funds and institutional investors on local capital mobilisation. CFF also advanced the design of shared market infrastructure through the development of the LAUNCH+ shared-services platform, submission of its application for a Variable Capital Company in Mauritius, and support for fund-of-funds initiatives, including the Ci Gaba Fund of Funds in Ghana and the Zambia Small Business Growth Initiative.
Working groups and collaborative initiatives were shaped by priorities identified through convenings and member engagement, focusing on themes such as foreign exchange risk, alternative credit assessment, and pension engagement. Throughout the year, CFF also showcased more than 40 ESCP fund managers across major ecosystem events, including the World Bank GROW Innovation Expo, SOCAP, AFSIC, AVPA, AESIS, and SuperReturn, helping elevate the visibility of locally rooted fund managers and the broader small business finance ecosystem.
