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Accelerating the growth of small and medium-sized businesses
Proparco brings together a wide range of financing and business advisory solutions tailored to meet the needs of these small and medium-sized enterprises and start-ups at the different stages of their development. With an international network of regional offices, Proparco supports these high-potential players in Africa, Asia, Eurasia, Latin America and the Middle East.
Access to credit via local financial institutions
Proparco partners with a wide range of local financial institutions (commercial banks, microfinance institutions, leasing and insurance companies), to provide the necessary financing and advisory support to enable these institutions to more effectively and efficiently serve the needs of local MSMEs.
- Our financing (credit lines) enables our financial partners to promote inclusive growth by reaching smaller enterprises for the first time or to target underserved SME segments, such as women entrepreneurs.
- Risk-sharing with financial institutions also encourages increased lending to enterprises and microfinance institutions, particularly via AFD’s guarantee tool ARIZ.
- Proparco also offers business advisory services to assist financial partners to continue to serve their SME clientele in a sustainable way. Such services may focus on product innovation or development, business model design or staff training in SME lending.
Private equity focused on high-growth SMEs
Through investing in small-business focused private equity funds, Proparco supports promising entrepreneurs and companies in developing and emerging countries. Through our fund partners, enterprises can access capital, as well as benefit from local expertise, knowledge and strategic support to grow, develop effective management frameworks and create sustainable jobs.
Early-stage investment in high-potential companies
Proparco has a dedicated team focused on supporting high-potential start-up companies looking to scale up marketable innovative solutions in Africa, and in other developing and emerging countries. Early stage investment is available principally through our partner investment funds, which cater for all types of investment stages, from seed to Series D.
FISEA: a fund for African entrepreneurs and businesses
In 2009, AFD Group set up the FISEA facility with the objective of promoting economic growth and the creation of start-ups and MSMEs on the continent. As the initial investment capacity of EUR 250m had been fully invested at the end of 2019, a new facility, FISEA+, took over in early 2021 under the Choose Africa initiative. With an investment capacity of EUR 210m and a technical assistance budget of EUR 21m, FISEA+ will continue to support businesses, either directly or via investment funds.
Are Scale-Up: supporting African enterprises in the renewable energy sector
The AFD Group, with the support of the European Union, has set up the African Renewable Energy Scale-Up Facility to support innovative projects in renewable energy and boost electrification on the African continent. Through the facility, Proparco provides financing and business development services to high-potential, growth start-ups and enterprises.
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Coris Holding and Proparco Strengthen Their Partnership to Facilitate Financing for Ivorian SMEs
Published on june 2 2025
