The Dutch Good Growth Fund part Investment funds local SMEs is a 'fund of fund' investment initiative by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to improve financing for the missing middle – i.e. entrepreneurs who have outgrown micro-financing but do not yet have access to conventional capital markets.
The DGGF aims to reach out to underserved countries, foster innovative financing products and invest in specific target groups (young entrepreneurs, female entrepreneurs, and entrepreneurs in fragile states that face high barriers to attracting capital). By doing so, the DGGF contributes to promoting knowledge transfer, increasing employment and production capacity and thus becomes a driver of economic growth.
In order to spur innovation in SME finance and move the finance frontier to underserved SME markets, the DGGF has a long term Seed Capital and Business Development (SCBD) facility to support promising early stage SME finance initiatives with up to € 1 million per initiative.
The SCBD facility offers a variety of instruments and services to kick start your SME finance initiative: Seed Capital, technical assistance, cost-sharing services.
The SCBD facility is especially interested in supporting initiatives that have an innovative approach to combat one or more of the following – interrelated – fundamental challenges of SME finance:
For example, the innovation may build on, but is not limited to ,integrated service models, automated valuation approaches, post-seed finance initiatives, P2P/crowd-funding communities, non-traditional sources of long-term capital, smart partnerships, psychometrics, supply chain models, big/lean data initiatives, etc.
The DGGF is especially interested in innovative, sustainable and scalable proposals that make SME finance work for female entrepreneurs, young entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs in fragile states.
Interested parties are invited to send their pitch-book to dggf@nl.pwc.com with the subject line 'Early Stage SME finance Initiative'.
The pitch-book should provide insight on:
The most compelling ideas and proposals will be selected and their applicants will receive further instructions to elaborate on their pilot proposals for funding support.
Selection will be conducted by an independent expert committee based on strategic fit and feasibility of the proposals.