State of Social Enterprise Africa 2025

23%38% 10%18% 8%16% 7%13% 6%13% 6%12% 3%7% 3%7% 1%2%Grants Family and friends Impact investors Crowdfunding Bank loans Angel investors Microfinance Traditional venture capital Other Sought Secured To cover operational costs To expand products/services To invest in equipment or infrastructure To scale to new markets or locations For research and development To manage cash flow gaps Other62% 61% 53% 36% 35% 25% 3%Financing sources by enterprise stage Approximately 96% of social enterprises plan to grow their business in the next year, indicating strong entrepreneurial ambition. The current distribution of enterprises across growth stages is varied: 38% are in the growth stage, 36% in the start-up stage, 13% in the seed stage, 9% are established and 4% are in the expansion stage. This shows a vibrant ecosystem with many nascent and developing enterprises. Among those that have sought finance in the last three years, the distribution across stages is similar but with a slightly higher proportion in the growth stage: 42% are in the growth stage, 33% in the start-up stage, 11% established, 10% in the seed stage and 5% in the expansion stage. This suggests that the need for external finance is most acute during the earlier and active growth phases. The types of finance sought vary according to the growth stage of social enterprises, with Figure 15 providing a visual overview of these differences.Stages of development among social enterprises FIGURE 14 Types of finance sought by social enterprises (disaggregated by growth stage) FIGURE 15Growth stage38%Start-up stage36%Seed stage13% Established stage9%Expansion stage4% Grant Family and friends Impact investors Crowdfunding Bank loans Angel investors Microfinance Traditional venture capital OtherSeed stage Start-up stage Growth stage Expansion stage Established stage78% 40% 27% 23% 12% 26% 15% 14% 73% 40% 23% 22% 19% 18% 13% 9% 58% 34% 27% 23% 29% 20% 13% 13% 62% 20% 18% 31% 27% 18% 11% 52% 20% 39% 33% 24% 19% 8% 17% 5%2%3%4%1%Source: Survey data, World Economic Forum Source: Survey data, World Economic Forum The State of Social Enterprise: Unlocking Inclusive Growth, Jobs and Development in Africa 33