Small and growing businesses (SGBs) create roughly 80% of formal employment opportunities in emerging markets, and are an important lever for social and environmental impact. However, such SGBs face an estimated $940B financing gap known as “the missing middle”.

This gap is especially acute for impact SGBs in Southeast Asia, where more than 70% of women-led SGBs lack access to capital and the available finance is skewed towards a few sectors that can absorb larger ticket sizes (e.g. microfinance and clean energy infrastructure).

In this panel we discuss the findings of a new report on this topic, and explore opportunities for addressing this critical financing gap in ways that are responsive to entrepreneurs’ needs.

Zebras Unite's lead of Capital, Dr. Astrid Scholz, will moderate a conversation with the report's authors: Dr. Jodi York, Ian Jones, and Shravan Shankar

The 'missing middle': Addressing the financing gap for entrepreneurs in emerging markets