Description Financing Model: Intermediated Finance Facility

Commercial capital is channeled through a facility that extends loans to farmers. These facilities often pool funding from both commercial and catalytic sources, enabling greater scale while balancing risk and return

Applicability: Well-suited for a range of asset owners (e.g., pension funds, institutional investors) who seek to support farmer financing without direct engagement

Considerations: Success is dependent on effective matching of stakeholders with different risk-return expectations

Description of the de-risking tool(s):

NA

Case study description:

A platform designed to invest in incubators, accelerators and seed funds in emerging markets, which most often struggle to access capital, mentorship, and networks

1. IFC allocates capital to the Startup Catalyst platform
2. IFC mobilises additional equity to invest alongside the Startup Catalyst platform in incubators, accelerators and seed fund, including blended finance or catalytic investment
3. The Startup Catalyst platform selects incubators, accelerators and seed funds operating in challenging VC ecosystems with nascent venture markets, to invest equity and boost the local ecosystem
4. In turn, the incubators, accelerators, and seed funds invest in (pre-)seed startups in their regions
5. IFC provides expertise to the fund managers receiving investment through the Startup Catalyst platform, to build their capacity. In turn, these investors provide access to networks and expertise to the startups in which they invest
6. As the startups mature, they contribute to a pipeline of targets for later stage investment by IFC and other investors, attracting more capital to the ecosystem

26 seed funds and accelerators supported and 768 startups in 55 emerging markets received funding until March 2025 (e.g., a women-led startup innovating health care in Egypt or a B2B procurement and supply chain transformation company in India creating jobs)