Under the agreement, TLG supplied the commercial debt, and IDP Foundation provided a guarantee, via a bank guarantee issued by Morgan Stanley, that draws on the foundation’s endowment as underlying collateral.

Rob Alhadeff, CEO of Jackfruit Network, explained that debt is critical to scaling their model of lending to low-cost private schools.

He added that when TLG first engaged, they promised tailored support, and that the resulting structure achieved something “the whole investor ecosystem hadn’t even done before.”

Isha Doshi, Partner at TLG Capital, highlighted the broader challenge: the financing gap for SMEs in sub-Saharan Africa is estimated at US$331 billion, yet Africa receives less than 1 % of global venture-capital funding.

She said that while impact investors play an essential role, they must pave the way for institutional capital to invest in Africa with confidence.

“That’s why we’re so proud of what we’ve achieved with IDP Foundation and Jackfruit – combining Morgan Stanley’s credit risk of AA- with the transformational impact of an SME,” she noted.

The transaction is noteworthy for its blended-finance innovation: IDP Foundation’s use of its endowment to provide a standby letter of credit (SBLC) or guarantee to TLG enables lending in Kenyan shillings, shielding borrowers from foreign-exchange risk.

The structure was developed in collaboration with TLG and IDP’s team, tailored to the specific realities of low-fee private schools, which often require flexible, local-currency finance rather than standard SME-debt models.

Jackfruit Network’s business focuses on lending short-to-medium-term working-capital and project finance loans to low-fee private schools in Kenya that serve underserved communities, many of which are women-led.

The new facility is expected to allow the organisation to expand from around 750 partner schools to more than 1,500, and increase the number of students impacted from approximately 228,000 to over 500,000.