Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE)
Defining and Championing the SGB Movement
For 16 years, the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE) serves as the pioneer and connective tissue of the global small and growing business (SGB) ecosystem. Founded on the belief that supporting SGBs has the power to transform local economies, lift communities out of poverty, and address systemic environmental and social challenges, ANDE brought together investors, capacity development providers, foundations, and researchers worldwide and regionally across Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
From in-person convening rooms across eight regional chapters to global stages at COP, UNGA, and the Aspen Ideas Festival, ANDE championed the missing middle of developing economies. ANDE leaves behind an interconnected, mature self-sustaining global community of ecosystem builders, grounded research, and proven market infrastructure.
Before ANDE, early-stage enterprises in emerging economies fell into the “missing middle”—too large for microfinance, yet deemed too small or risky for traditional commercial banks and venture capital. Over nearly two decades, ANDE built a shared language, mobilized capital allocators, and united entrepreneurial support organizations (ESOs) across eight regional chapters. By proving that supporting SGBs drives poverty alleviation, dignified work, and local economic resilience, ANDE transformed a fragmented concept into a recognized global asset class.
“ANDE defined the SGB sector. It put SGBs on the map and played a key role in helping development organizations understand the needs and potential impact of SGBs.”
Omidyar Network
How ANDE Transformed the Field
Setting the Standard & Mobilizing Capital
ANDE shifted development finance from isolated interventions to systemic market infrastructure. By championing blended finance, catalytic capital, and flexible deal structures, ANDE helped emerging-market SGB-focused investment capital surge from under $3 billion in 2009 to over $17 billion in 2016, catalyzing the earliest segment of what has become a $1.5T+ global impact investing industry today.
Pioneering Grounded, Open-Access Evidence
To bridge the gap between academic research and practitioner reality, ANDE launched the Global Accelerator Learning Initiative (GALI)—creating the world’s largest open-source dataset on accelerator performance (>20,000 ventures)—and the SGB Evidence Fund, which funded over 100 empirical studies informing global investors and policymakers.
Professionalizing Ecosystem Infrastructure
Through its eight regional chapters, ANDE connected investors, capacity providers, and public institutions to streamline entrepreneur support. Through initiatives like the SCALE 360 framework, standardized impact measurement (IMM) toolkits, and 77 local ecosystem diagnostics, ANDE helped support organizations dramatically lower delivery costs and increase operational rigor.
Mainstreaming Critical Priorities
With a durable market infrastructure in place, ANDE championed new sectors for investment and growth, including spearheading the issue of gender-lens investing, advancing green circular growth, and advocating for township and grassroots entrepreneurs directly within national policies and global forums like the G20.
ANDE by the Numbers
tracked across 300+ accelerator cohorts to establish the world’s premier benchmark on business acceleration
across 8 Regional Chapters in Latin America, Africa, and Asia
and 77 Local Ecosystem Snapshots published
of global ecosystem architecture and advocacy (2009–2026)
vehicles mobilized across the network
Preserving the Knowledge Commons
While ANDE’s formal network operations conclude, the knowledge built here remains a shared global asset. This site will host the catalog of ANDE research, tools, and case studies until December 2027. As we approach this sunset date, we invite our members, alumni, and peer institutions to become long-term stewards of this work.
The Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs is proud to release this body of research under a Creative Commons license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) so that ecosystem actors can use and host these materials on their own organizational websites and continue to build upon the knowledge ANDE produced. Note that the use and redistribution of any publication in this archive must include an attribution, and this license does not permit use for commercial purposes or modification of the source material.
