BANGKOK, December 8, 2014 – The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) today announced a new partnership to help small enterprises access funding to strengthen poor and vulnerable communities in Asia through impact investment.

USAID is contributing $800,000 to the Singapore-based Impact Investment Shujog Pte. Ltd. (Shujog) to scale their Assistance for Capacity Building and Technical Services (ACTS) program to help nearly 25 Asian social enterprises grow their impact in five sectors – agriculture, health, education, energy and water security – over the next two years.

“USAID is eager to support the growth of social enterprises because they offer an additional means to tackle some of the world’s most pressing social and environmental problems,” said Michael Yates, Director of the USAID Regional Development Mission for Asia. “While many social enterprises operate on a small scale, they have the potential to expand and bring about greater social benefit. We can help move this forward through our partnership with Shujog, by helping social enterprises raise the capital they need to grow their businesses and increase their impact on the lives of poor and marginalized people.”

Through ACTS and along with partners Bank of America Merrill Lynch, JP Morgan Chase and the Rockefeller Foundation, this program assists social enterprises to attract investment, scale their businesses and increase their impact through an innovative approach to technical assistance. This partnership is one of six catalytic partnerships formed under USAID’s Partnering to Accelerate Entrepreneurship, which encourages private sector investment in early-stage enterprises and identifies innovations that can help unlock the potential of thousands of enterprises worldwide.

Through repayable advances and grants, ACTS offers funding for early-stage social enterprises to seek services so they can be ready to receive impact investment. Participating social enterprises repay the interest-free advance, helping the revolving facility to support additional early-stage businesses.

“By using a partnership model with multinational donors and corporations, Shujog ACTS will unlock impact investment capital to grow social enterprises. Already in its first year of implementation, Shujog ACTS is catalyzing over $1 million in private capital to scale social enterprises that impact over 54,000 beneficiaries,” said Durreen Shahnaz, Shujog’s Founder and Chairperson.

See more photos of the event here: https://flic.kr/s/aHsk6HdNLG