Platform for climate-resilient SME financing: Institutionalising access to climate finance | Climate Finance, South Africa 2019
SEED Practitioner Labs Climate Finance in South Africa engaged financial institutions, funders, intermediaries and other SME ecosystem stakeholders over a multi-step process to co-create innovative climate finance products and mechanisms that extend access to long-term financing opportunities for “missing middle” small and growing climate-smart enterprises that struggle to advance beyond the start-up stage and multiply their contributions to climate-smart and socially inclusive economies.
The proposed platform for climate-resilient SME financing, developed by OneWorld Sustainable Investments with Impact Amplifier, Trade & Industrial Policies Strategies (TIPS) and GreenCape, builds on existing efforts to map and create a climate resilience investment-readiness ecosystem to support eco-inclusive SMEs in building their capacity and enhancing deal flow. The platform will support investors and SMEs by building a common understanding of the climate resilience market, facilitating investment-readiness and matchmaking processes, and building SMEs capacity through a customised “capacity building journey”. The journey offers various steps to be taken towards matchmaking, based on the SMEs specific stage of enterprise development and investment readiness, as well as the interests and requirements of specific potential funders.