More than money: Mapping the landscape of advisory support for inclusive business

Aline Menden (née Krämer), Carolin Schramm, Christian Pirzer, Sara Ballan
Reports

Entrepreneurial approaches to deliver development impact are gaining attention in both the business and development communities. While many organizations that provide support to inclusive businesses deploy funds – grants, awards, debt, equity – not far behind is a growing range of non-financial support mechanisms for entrepreneurs and innovators that seek to scale their solutions. Acceleration support, technical assistance, business development services (BDS) and other non-financial support offerings are available to startups testing their ideas and to maturing businesses seeking scale. While this type of support is increasingly available, it is not very clear why it has emerged, who is providing it to whom, what types of support are offered and what types of support are most effective.
This report seeks to answer these questions by taking stock of the landscape of advisory support for inclusive businesses, teasing out trends and highlighting lessons that have been learnt to date.