Effective incubation and acceleration services

Frontier Incubators strengthened the ecosystem in the Asia Pacific region for scaling the impact of social enterprises by mobilising 11 Program Partners to provide capability building support to 31 incubators and accelerators. This improved access to effective incubation and acceleration services. SFI-supported incubators and accelerators created 25 new cohorts that included 288 social enterprises following SFI assistance.

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Innovative approaches

A range of innovative approaches influenced program design and implementation and ultimately contributed to development impact.

  • Complexity-Aware Diagnostics
  • Co-Design
  • Adaptive Management

Outcomes Achieved

The 31 Cohort Partners that received support through Frontier Incubators reported increased capabilities as measured through a customised application of the World Bank Group’s Capacity Development Results Framework.

  • 100%
    increased knowledge/skills
  • 100%
    applied knowledge/skills
  • 75%
    75% reported increased performance as a result of the knowledge/skills
  • 100%
    reported increased ability to network with others in the entrepreneurship ecosystem

Development Impact Data

  • $3.1million
    AUD was raised by using strategies developed under Frontier Incubators to scale up entrepreneurship support services available in the region
  • 288
    social enterprises supported through incubation or acceleration services
  • 25
    new cohorts of entrepreneurs run by incubators and accelerators
  • ONE
    open-source, online toolkit produced on Global Impact Incubation and Acceleration

Impact Stories

KisStartup

Vietnam

  • #Mentoring

KisStartup

Enhances entrepreneurs' innovation capacity for their sustainable and impactful growth.

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xchange

Philippines

  • #Investing

xchange

A Philippine impact-first incubator for high potential early-stage social enterprises looking to scale.

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LightCastle Partners

Bangladesh

  • #Mentoring

  • #Training

LightCastle Partners

Accelerates mission-driven small businesses through smart capital and ecosystem development.

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Key Takeaways

Recommendations are based on lessons learnt from Frontier Incubators. For more information on how the program was designed and implemented, see the Frontier Incubators Interim Results and Learning report.

  • Adapting the existing Frontier Incubators model to focus on the Pacific may add greater value to the Pacific-based organisations supporting entrepreneurship.

    • Expanding the Pacific cohort would enable increased regional peer learning and the identification of Pacific-specific case studies and good practices that could be leveraged to support improved entrepreneurship support services in the region, as well as creating the space to further test how proven good practices used for incubators and accelerators may be adapted to other types of ESOs.
    • Several Pacific-based organisations expressed difficulty relating to the types of investment (and sizes of investment) other incubators and accelerators sought and expressed a desire for increased opportunities to engage in Peer Learning with other Pacific-based organisations facing or having addressed similar challenges.

  • A Gender Lens should be intentionally embedded throughout programs that seek to support incubators and accelerators.

    • This integration is essential in supporting incubators and accelerators to address their own biases and power imbalances so that they can help equitably address the challenges facing women entrepreneurs and investors globally.

  • Embedding processes to encourage adaptive management throughout implementation is critical to implementing programs to support the evolving needs of incubators and accelerators.

    • Frontier Incubators incorporated mid-point check-ins to resolve challenges (and replicate identified good practices) across the custom support programs.
    • However, building in further flexibility, including options to re-match with new partners or shift focus areas as needs evolved, may have enabled participants to get even more out of the program.