ChapChap is a Ugandan digital platform that lets people pay for utilities, airtime, and other services through a network of local agents. When it applied for an Innovation Against Poverty (IAP) grant, it operated in a single district with fewer than 1,000 businesses on its platform. Today it serves 22 million monthly customers across 54 districts. ChapChap is one of 39 inclusive businesses supported by the IAP programme.  A long-term learning study conducted by DevLearn, tracked 26 of them, examining what happened two to six years after grant support ended.

Most businesses are still running

Of the 26 businesses assessed, 25 remain operational. Around a third were classified as High Performers, having achieved meaningful growth and attracted further investment. Half maintained viable operations as Steady Sustainers. Around 12% were struggling, and 4% were discontinued. In total, 85% were either growing or holding steady years after grant support ended.

The distribution itself, with a cluster of strong performers, a broad middle of steady operators, and a small tail of underperformance, is broadly consistent with what would be expected from any early-stage portfolio. For inclusive businesses operating in volatile markets with limited access to capital and often serving customer segments that commercial investors consider high risk, that level of continuity is worth noting.

Access to capital followed a similar pattern. Of the 25 continuing businesses, 80% had secured or were in the process of securing additional capital after grant support ended. All nine High Performers have attracted further investment or are actively raising it. The type of capital tracked performance: stronger businesses drew loans and equity, while struggling ones relied primarily on grants.

Growth came in different forms

Among those that grew, the path was rarely the same.

• Scaling geographically: ChapChap expanded across Uganda by deepening its agent network, growing annual revenue from $100,000 to $2 million.
• Scaling production: Tulip Addis Water Filter in Ethiopia grew from 12,000 to 60,000 units per year, building a nationwide distribution network of 84 agents without a single equity raise.
• Deepening the model: Solar Green Energy in Cambodia moved from one solar irrigation site to nine and secured a Euro 370,000 grant from the Dutch Fund for Climate and Development, positioning itself for an anticipated $13 million in further investment.
• Pivoting: Wana Energy Solutions in Uganda shifted from a liquefied gas model that faced adoption challenges to a broader energy portfolio including solar and induction cooking, opening new customer segments in the process.

Scale, though, did not always translate into profit. Several of the strongest performers grew significantly while still working through the path to consistent margins, a reminder that reaching scale and reaching profitability are different milestones. For inclusive businesses, the journey from one to the other is rarely linear.

Business models, not mission statements, kept businesses pro-poor

Inclusive businesses integrate low-income communities across the value chain, as customers, suppliers, employees, or distributors. Most of the businesses assessed retained that focus years after the grant ended. The evidence suggests this endured less because of mission statements than because the business model itself made low-income customers commercially viable to serve. Where commercial and social objectives reinforced each other, the inclusive focus held; Where they did not, it tended to drift.

Businesses that maintained their pro-poor focus were those for whom serving low-income communities was profitable, through innovation, tiered pricing, wide distribution reach, or demand activation. One water filter manufacturer charged more through supermarkets while offering microfinance instalments and free rural delivery to low-income households, making both reach and profitability work together. A food producer applied its lowest rates to refugee schools and NGOs while charging a premium through commercial retail channels.

Where that logic broke down, businesses shifted toward customers who could pay more. The reasons varied: demand from low-income customers had been overestimated, cheaper informal alternatives undercut the offer, or customers perceived the service as something that should be free.

The businesses that adapted were the ones that grew

In markets that are rarely static, the capacity to change direction matters as much as the strength of the original business model. Significant pivots occurred exclusively among High Performers, suggesting that the ability to adapt, often by innovating in product, model, or market, was closely linked to the strongest growth trajectories. Behind that capacity was invariably a strong team, with the judgement and experience to recognise when the model needs to change, and to act on it.

Technical assistance outlasted the grant

Strong teams matter, but they rarely succeed alone. Grant funding was foundational, but across the portfolio businesses consistently credited the non-financial support that came with it as just as decisive.

Technical assistance helped companies formalise operations, build financial systems, and develop growth plans. ChapChap’s founder put it directly: “IAP contributed probably 80% to that growth.” If processes are not right, then there’s a lot of friction that will stop you from that growth. Investment readiness support, including pitch preparation, financial modelling, and investor connections, had effects that lasted well beyond the grant period. The IAP brand itself acted as a credibility signal, opening doors to partnerships and financing that would otherwise have been harder to access.

But this support worked best when matched to where a business actually was in its development. Earlier-stage companies benefited most from technical assistance and mentoring. More mature businesses drew greater value from strategic support and targeted investor introductions than from broader matchmaking. The timing and calibration of non-financial support appears to matter as much as the support itself.

Some businesses began to shape their markets

As businesses grow, they sometimes influence the markets around them. 3 of the 25 operational businesses in the portfolio showed early signs of this.

Tulip Addis’s shift from importing water filters to local assembly in Ethiopia was followed by its partnership with the government on rural outreach, which raised awareness of household water filtration and supported wider adoption. Competitors later entered local manufacturing, suggesting that Tulip Addis’s first-mover activity helped stimulate broader market entry. In Uganda, ChapChap‘s agent-network model became a reference point for other entrepreneurs, particularly youth-led businesses, exploring digital financial services. In Cambodia, East West Seeds strengthened agricultural value chains through farmer training. Better-trained farmers became more capable market participants, which expanded opportunities and generated broader benefits across the agricultural input market, for East West Seeds and for the sector as a whole.

Where market influence occurred, it tended to follow from the same commercial logic that drove growth: companies shaped the markets they had a stake in expanding.

The value of looking back

Most evaluations of grant programmes assess performance at or near the point when funding ends. Looking back years later surfaces findings that would otherwise remain invisible: which businesses grew, which drifted, which adapted, and what made the difference. That kind of evidence is difficult to gather but valuable for anyone designing development programmes that support businesses. It offers a more honest basis for understanding what works, and for refining how future programmes are structured and what they prioritise.

The study’s clearest finding is also its simplest: supporting inclusive businesses to reach the next stage of their development works. Most are still running years later. Several have grown significantly. What seems to matter most is whether companies can evolve over time, and whether they receive the right support at the right moments along the way.

In November 2026, IAP will publish a Learning Brief drawing on the findings of this study, with a focus on the lessons and implications for funders and business-support programmes seeking to strengthen inclusive business development.