SEAF is a global private equity fund manager that invests in SMEs in pursuit of a double bottom line mission: to promote socially responsible economic development while generating an appropriate return on investment.

Based in Washington D.C. and founded in 1989 as part of the international relief and development organization CARE, SEAF today comprises 17 active investment funds with aggregate capital under management in excess of US$400 million.

SEAF is the recognized world leader in SME investment, with over 90 investment professionals operating in more than 20 countries in Central and Eastern Europe, Latin America, and Asia. Collectively, SEAF has invested in over 250 SMEs in every stage of development across a wide variety of industries.

Please visit SEAF’s web site at www.seaf.com

Global Presence

SEAF headquarters are located in Washington, DC, USA, with local offices in 18 countries.

Representative Investors

Investors in SEAF-managed funds include a cross section of public and private institutions, including government-sponsored development finance institutions, local pension funds, insurance companies, banks and family offices.

A representative list of SEAF investors include:

Development Finance Institutions

• Belgian Investment Office
   
• Black Sea Trade and Development Bank
   
• Deutsche Investions- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft
   
• European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
   
• FMO
   
• Finnish Fund Industrial Cooperation
   
• International Finance Corporation
   
• Kazakh National Innovation Fund
   
• Millennium Challenge Georgia Fund (MCG)
   
• Norwegian International Fund for Developing Countries
   
• Polish Cooperation Fund
   
• Small Industries Development Bank of India
   
• State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, Switzerland
   
• Swedfund International AB
   
• United States Agency for International Development

Commercial Investors

• Kotak Mahindra Bank
   
• Life Insurance Corporation of India
   
• New York Life International
   
• Pound Capital
   
• Seguros Suramericana

Pension Funds

• AFP Prima
   
• AFP Integra
   
• Proteccion
   
• Provenir
   
• Colfondos
   
• Evangelische Kirche in Hesse and Nassau

Foundations

• Ford Foundation
   
• Foundation for the Development of Polish Agriculture

Development Impact Study

SEAF and many of SEAF’s investors have dual mandates: to achieve reasonable returns from investments that also further economic development in a socially responsible manner. Private investors and socially responsible investors also have an interest in understanding the social impacts beyond financial returns.

It has long been recognized that small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are a potentially powerful tool for economic growth and poverty reduction. There have been several broad brush studies conducted in recent years that seek to examine this insight for the entire SME sector. However, these studies are not based on actual analyses of how growing SMEs actually effect such development. As an SME investor in challenging and emerging markets over the last 18 years, SEAF offers a global portfolio that is ideally suited for investigating this impact based on actual “on-the-ground”  data.

In 2004, SEAF published a report that measured and analyzed the developmental impacts of ten of its SME investments in emerging markets. The report looked beyond traditional financial returns to assess the impacts of growing SMEs on the lives of employees and other stakeholders in the local economy. Based on positive feedback on the report and an expressed interest in seeing SEAF expand its analysis to a broader pool of companies, SEAF analyzed almost 50 SMEs in the SEAF portfolio.

Building on the experience of the 2004 study, SEAF has been able to collect new and broader data. As opposed to the 2004 study, which was backwards looking, SEAF has been able to establish monitoring criteria on an ex ante basis, allowing for a more direct insight into how investments in SMEs throughout the world have reduced poverty and improved the lives of the many stakeholders affected by the SMEs in question. The new analysis has also permitted SEAF to better understand and document the multiplier effect of SME investing and the benefits going especially to poor and low-skilled workers. It has also helped SEAF to better quantify and understand other significant impacts of SMEs, the most compelling being the role that SMEs can play in building the capacity of local suppliers and micro-entrepreneurs, by serving as an “aggregator” of such suppliers that would otherwise lack access to larger, even global markets.

Following are the key results of the SEAF Development Impact Study:

• On average every $1 invested into the case study companies generates an additional $12 in the local economy;
   
• The impact on the lives of employees is significant, as demonstrated through data and employee testimonies, suggesting SMEs can be an effective tool for poverty alleviation;
   
• SMEs can generate significant business opportunities for other domestic companies and serve as “aggregators” for micro-suppliers;
   
• Benefits to other stakeholders are captured in survey data results and case profiles telling the stories of SME investment success.

To download the full SEAF Development Impact Study, click here

SEAF Success Stories

SEAF’s global investment teams pride themselves on being solutions-oriented business people who work with our local partners to achieve solid economic growth, with equally solid returns for our investors. For an overview of SEAF success stories, click here