Alloysius Attah started Farmerline, a social enterprise in Ghana that connects small scale farmers with information, services, and markets, with just $600 in prize money from a mobile app competition.

Since then, he has found that he needs to travel outside of Ghana to attract the capital he needs to scale up his operations.

When Attah was selected for Echoing Green, an organization that provides seed stage funding and support to global social entrepreneurs, he gained vital access to a network of funders. Now that his company has expanded to 11 countries, and earned $1 million in revenue, he is working to raise $1.5 million to scale to more countries and reach more farmers. Attah finds himself in what is often described as the missing middle, in which entrepreneurs who are just beyond the seed stage lack the medium- to long-term financing they need to keep on growing.

“It feels like starting a business all over again because you are interacting with a different level of investors and funders who might require certain boxes for you to check before they can be able to give you the support that you need,” he told Devex.

Read the full article about blended capital helping social entrepreneurs by Catherine Cheney at Devex International Development.