GenEM Foundation

We believe businesses built with commercial discipline and strong incentives can transform livelihoods sustainably over the long term.  However, early-stage purpose-led businesses in developing countries face a critical funding gap. Many are capital-intensive and take time to reach profitability, making them too risky for impact investors and a struggle for traditional philanthropy.  This lack of funding prevents high-impact ventures from taking off. 

That’s where our concessionary capital comes in. By taking on greater risk and accepting lower returns, we act as critical enablers of the impact ecosystem – helping enterprises de-risk, gain momentum, and attract more commercial investors.  A well-timed injection of funding can catalyse the creation of scalable businesses which drive far reaching income growth. Our capital doesn’t just create change once—it gets recycled and redeployed, fuelling continuous waves of new enterprises. 

For over a decade, we’ve funded livelihood projects, combining impact expertise with a deep understanding of business and value chains. By bridging philanthropy and investment, we ensure capital is directed where it can make the greatest difference to the incomes of the people we serve. 

We aim to:

• Unlock economic potential within marginalised communities through alleviating market failures, addressing government neglect and supporting collective action
• Empower communities to generate long-term improvements in living standards and self-sufficiency
• Share opportunities from the transition to sustainable economies, and mitigate the impact of climate change.

We will focus on repayable grants and revenue-based loans to:

• Support the ecosystem which derisks and crowds in larger pools of impact and commercial funding
• Use commercial discipline to increase the long-term sustainability of enterprises and develop value chains  
• Magnify impact by funding organisations which can recycle capital.