East Africa is expected to be the fastest growing region in the entire African sub-continent in 2016 and consequently, over the last decade, the region has seen a splurge in foreign direct investment and entrepreneurial activity.

Intellecap’s research in East Africa finds that impact enterprises engage with the low income population across three levers: Access, Ability, and Knowledge. Access enterprises provide critical products and services among the low income and underserved population. Ability enterprises increase their capacity to earn higher incomes through skilling or by engaging with them as partners. Lastly, Knowledge enterprises build awareness and markets, and encourage behavior change.

This first of a kind report provides detailed cluster analysis of 398 impact enterprises across the three levers in five East African countries. The report is written and presented to be useful to all development sector stakeholders, with specific insights to inform decisions of investors, enterprises, and non-financial support providers across East Africa.