Current partners
Growth Firms Alliance (GFA) is an alliance of philanthropic funders dedicated to unleashing the potential of growth firms to transform low- and middle-income countries and drive widespread improvements in wellbeing.
GFA seeks to improve shared learning and practice around supporting growth firms between its own members, as well as collaborate with systemic actors to elevate the importance of growth firms and cultivate effective systems of finance and support for growing firms. The GFA members define growth firms as small and medium-sized enterprises that are operating in an emerging market, with potential and intention to at least double their revenue and/or employment over a five-year period.
In 2024 Small Foundation provided an unrestricted grant to support the operating expenses of GFA.
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www.growthfirmsalliance.comNetwork Spotlight – Impact in 2025
In 2025, the Growth Firms Alliance (GFA), concluded the 18-month pilot phase (May 2024–December 2025) it had run since forming in 2023. The GFA members were Small Foundation, Argidius Foundation, the Lemelson Foundation, the Visa Foundation and the IKEA Foundation.
Over the pilot, GFA sharpened coordination among its members and built relationships with a widening set of capital providers, resulting in significant progress at both the project and sector level. A GFA-led convening among DFIs explored the challenges and solutions for getting the right sort of capital to growth firms and helped advance funding platforms like Ci Gaba towards unlocking tens of millions of dollars in local pension fund capital for growth firm investments.
At the sector level, GFA was deeply engaged in supporting and influencing the agendas and strategies of major initiatives. GFA hosted high-level panels and provided representation at key sector events and forums such as the Financing for Development Summit in Seville, the 2025 Impact Europe Summit, and the 2025 World Bank Fall Meetings.
GFA launched a new SME banking toolkit, INVEST, that allows DFIs and donors to integrate highly effective capacity building for banks to ensure that new lines of credit and guarantees lead to a sustained expansion in SME lending. GFA has also joined Investing in Young Businesses in Africa (IYBA), catalysing the development of a new Market Creation program within the initiative that will be a key pillar of Team Europe’s approach to supporting entrepreneurship on the continent. These connection points have served as the basis for direct input on the strategies of major MDBs and DFIs, including the new SME strategies at both the World Bank and the African Development Bank and the emerging Market Creation team at FMO.
GFA has also served as a thought leader, driving the global discussion on what growth firm ecosystem support should look like in the context of the new aid reality. GFA published a report in partnership with the Global Steering Group for Impact Investing on the ways in which DFIs and philanthropies can and should shift their focus to long-term sustained capital mobilization rather than a short-term transaction lens, as well as a report on the importance and implications of proper segmentation of women-led MSMEs. These reports and the underlying messaging have been important drivers of the global conversation on the future of development finance, with a clear strategic shift among a range of these institutions away from a transaction approach and towards a market building approach.
