Growth Finance: The VC Cousin to Microfinance

April 7, 2009 (Times UK)There was a time when it was thought you could not lend money to the poor in developing countries. It was money, however well-meaning, poured down the drain. Yet microfinance proved that you can.

It has long been thought, also, that venture capitalists will not invest readily in enterprises in developing countries. The large sums of cash involved, the long distances and unfamiliar economies do not add up to the kind of numbers that attract regular investors. Yet could “growth finance” be about to prove that wrong, too?

Indeed, it is hoped that growth finance could achieve success on a scale far beyond the ambitions of its micro-managing cousin. (full article)