In 2017, Argidius and Impact Hub entered a third phase of their partnership with the aim of 1) strengthening overall governance and regional Hubs’ capacity in emerging markets, 2) supporting 50 emerging market ventures to scale, and 3) strengthen impact measurement. An evaluation was commissioned to a) review Impact Hub’s scaling programme M&E Framework and b) assess the contribution that the programme has made to successful outcomes.
The scaling programme was a social enterprise support programme launched in 5 locations across Mexico (x2), Brazil, Colombia and Costa Rica with the aim of supporting ventures to get ready to scale and penetrate potential markets. 22 ‘’high potential’’ ventures (with a median baseline revenue of €182k), were selected out of a field of 63 ‘’impact-driven enterprises,’’ and supported at an average cost per enterprise of €19k. Between 2017 and 2019, twenty of the ‘’high potential’’ ventures generated over €6m in incremental revenue, 99 full time jobs, and mobilized an additional €3m in finance.
Key findings
- Supported businesses are growing revenues, creating jobs, and in some cases raising investment.
- Diagnosis, intervention planning, and scaling methodologies; individual support from mentors, experts and consultants; ongoing support from local scaling staff; and group cohort training were aspects most valued by entrepreneurs, with individualized support described as being the most relevant in contributing to growth.
- The least relevant services where the access to investment related activities and peer to peer learning where participant ventures were spread across the country. In locations where participant ventures were spread across the country, engagement of entrepreneurs was limited
- Contribution to these outcomes is mixed, and largely depended on local hub scaling managers’ drive and skills.
- Entrepreneurs’ experiences varied across the different locations, especially relating to the strategic focus of each local Impact Hub; the proximity of the participant venture to the local IH location; delivery method of cohort trainings (on-line or face to face); chances of interacting with international experts; and the level of mentorship support.
- There was mixed success in identifying the right ventures; more enterprises were in a growth stage rather than a scaling and penetrating new markets phase. Paradoxically the growth stage ventures described greater levels of contribution than ventures in the scaling phase.
- Ventures received less intensive support than originally anticipated. The scaling programme was significantly restructured to secure the counterpart funding Argidius required. There was a tension between the focus of the two co-funders, with one focusing on volume/reach and accountability, and the other focussed on impact and learning. This adversely affected the programme delivery model, capacity and organizational performance. Design shortcomings, including a top down approach, lack of local contextualization, and organizational arrangements compounded the challenges.
