Programs: Haitian Business Accelerator
Announced:
August 10, 2011
Category:
Providing Small & Growing Businesses with Access to Financing & Business Services
Fund Amount: $2,000,000 Grant
Above, female entrepreneurs receive financing
to expand or start their own businesses.
See more in the Haitian Business Accelerator Photo Gallery.
The Clinton Bush Haiti Fund's grant to TechnoServe is being used to implement the Haitian Business Accelerator, which intends to transform small and growing businesses into investment-ready, bankable companies positioned to promote jobs and develop Haiti's formal economy.
The formal business sector in Haiti is small. Many small and growing companies need the business expertise and, in some cases, the seed capital, to enter into it. TechnoServe's Haitian Business Accelerator seeks to use business plan competitions to find these promising entrepreneurs, and work alongside these investment-worthy companies to provide them with practical business training.
Program Updates
TechnoServe collected hundreds of applications to the program in late 2011, with business propositions covering sectors ranging from agriculture, to waste management, to renewable energy. The program is now working with the best of these to help develop formal business plans.
Why We Invested in the Haitian Business Accelerator
Clinton Bush Haiti Fund's grant to TechnoServe's Haitian Business Accelerator reflects our commitment to restarting, expanding and creating small and growing businesses, while empowering individuals and organizations to transition from the informal to the formal sector.
Transforming Lives and Livelihoods
The Clinton Bush Haiti Fund grant to support the Haitian Business Accelerator aims to:
- Identify and support Haitian entrepreneurs through capacity-building and practical business training;
- Facilitate access to finance for developing enterprises;
- Strengthen entrepreneurship networks by collaborating with existing institutions, ultimately strengthening the business development services sector of Haiti;
- Develop a project that will, after three years, pass the business development services it provides on to Haitian institutions.
About TechnoServe
Since 1968, TechnoServe has helped entrepreneurial men and women in poor areas of the developing world to build businesses that create income, opportunity, and economic growth for their families, their communities, and their countries. See more of what TechnoServe is doing at www.technoserve.org. Visit www.memahaiti.org for more information about the Haitian Business Accelerator.
