USAID TRAIN: Catalyzed $24m in investments into high-impact SMEs in East and Southern Africa

Established and led TRAIN (Talent to de-Risk and Accelerate Investment), a two-year partnership between OCA, USAID, and seven global impact investors. TRAIN was an Investment Readiness Program designed to catalyze more investments into high-impact SMEs in East and Southern Africa, businesses which often face particularly acute challenges in raising capital. Specifically, TRAIN aimed to test the combination of a new, streamlined due diligence approach with a talent-enabled model of post-investment support to reduce investor risk. We closed $24M in transactions (average size of $1M, investments as small as $50k), exceeding the program target of $5M by multiples.