FMO, the Dutch entrepreneurial development bank and Gates Foundation today launch a partnership to accelerate investment in food systems in Sub-Saharan Africa. It brings together development finance and philanthropy to help promising businesses and innovations scale. 
Across Africa, businesses are developing solutions for more productive, resilient and inclusive food systems. Yet many need support to strengthen their models, prove commercial viability or navigate fragmented markets, while perceived risks deter investors. This leaves a gap between promising solutions and the finance needed to scale them.
FMO’s Market Creation approach addresses this gap by removing barriers to investment in underserved markets. Through grants and technical assistance, FMO develops and de-risks opportunities so businesses and sectors not yet ready for investment can enter the future pipeline of FMO and other impact investors.
The partnership will apply this approach to food systems in Sub-Saharan Africa, using targeted interventions to remove investment barriers and connect early-stage support with future development and commercial finance. It combines FMO’s investment expertise and networks with the Gates Foundation’s technical expertise, sector knowledge and innovation capacity.
The work has three pathways. Progression will help promising businesses become investment-ready. Portfolio will use FMO’s client relationships to help relevant innovations scale. Enabling will convene development finance institutions, impact investors, public funders and philanthropic partners to tackle wider market barriers and mobilize investment.
The partnership will also test how philanthropy and development finance can work more effectively together. Philanthropy can address constraints before conventional investment is viable, while development finance provides expertise, networks and a route to commercial scale. FMO’s Market Creation and investment teams collaborate to keep interventions grounded in investment discipline and focused on attracting other investors.
This partnership will remove barriers and create pathways to investment and scale.
“Innovative African food businesses have strong growth and impact potential but often struggle to attract investment. This partnership will remove barriers and create pathways to investment and scale. The program will capture evidence, assess which approaches work and use the lessons to inform the potential expansion of Market Creation across food systems. By combining philanthropy and development finance, the partnership aims to show how targeted support can build stronger investment markets and channel more capital to businesses advancing sustainable and inclusive food systems in Africa.’’
