New USAID, Gazelle Finance programme to support over 30 SMEs, economic recovery in Georgia

The programme will target its support towards a group of high-potential SMEs, helping them attract private sector financing, expand their businesses and generate employment opportunities in their communities. Photo: Nino Alavidze/Agenda.ge.

Agenda.ge, 17 May 2021 - 13:24, Tbilisi,Georgia

More than 30 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Georgia will benefit from a new three-year programme launched by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and Gazelle Finance, a financial company that invests in SMEs in the Eurasia Region, with current focus on Georgia and Armenia. 

The programme will target a group of high-potential SMEs, helping them attract private sector financing, expand their businesses and generate employment opportunities in their communities. 

This programme is targeted to support over 30 SMEs, result in creating over 1,677 new jobs, and catalyse more than $15 million in foreign direct investment in Georgia. This blended finance approach, a combination of know-how transfer and investment capital, is the key ingredient to create long-term sustainable businesses, which are currently underserved by the local capital markets", said the CEO of Gazelle Finance Jeffrey Liebert. 

The programme will help beneficiary businesses secure access to new export markets, effectively compete with imports, strengthen their management, and improve environmental, social, and governance performance.

This assistance will support the development of these companies into leaders in the Georgian economy, creating jobs and setting an example for other dynamic firms to follow.