Promising water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) enterprises often struggle to access the finance they need to grow. Too advanced for small grants, yet not ready for commercial investors, many locally led enterprises remain stuck in the “missing middle”. MajiFund bridges this gap by providing tailored financing and support to help high-potential WASH enterprises grow, strengthen their business models and prepare for larger investments.
Implemented by cewas and VOx Impuls from August 2024 to August 2027, MajiFund is a post-acceleration financing mechanism born out of the Majipreneurs Alliance. It supports WASH enterprises in Kenya, Uganda and Ghana working in water supply, sanitation and (female) hygiene, many of them alumni of cewas’ Maji accelerator programs. It combines concessional loans of typically USD 50,000 to 300,000 with catalytic grants, technical assistance and capacity building. This flexible approach helps enterprises strengthen their operations, demonstrate commercial viability and build a track record that can attract follow-on investment.
So far, MajiFund has backed 28 enterprises: 9 in Kenya, 9 in Uganda and 10 in Ghana. With the backing of its supporting partners, the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, the Stone Family Foundation, Viva con Agua and Siemens Stiftung, MajiFund connects philanthropic funding with promising local enterprises to build a stronger pipeline of investment-ready WASH businesses. Ultimately, this enables enterprises to scale sustainable and affordable water, sanitation and hygiene services, particularly for underserved communities.
Building on its pilot phase, MajiFund is preparing to expand its reach and support more enterprises from 2027 onwards, with a target fund size of USD 22.5 million. It is the core instrument in cewas’ ambition to reach 20 million people with improved water and sanitation services by 2030, up from more than 5 million so far, and to see at least ten investees achieve exponential growth and secure larger investments.
For more information, visit www.majifund.org
