SGBs need talent as much as capital, but who will pay for it?

Ask anyone working in Africa's small and growing business ecosystem — founders, investors, business development support providers — why a promising business failed to grow, and the answers tend to cluster around the familiar: insufficient capital, weak market access, poor timing. Rarely does the answer land on talent: the absence of a finance lead who could build a credible financial model, a fundraising manager who could tell the business story to investors, a sales and marketing lead who could develop and execute a sound commercial strategy, or an operations lead who could build the systems that growth requires, and yet this is often why they struggled to raise capital, to capture their market, or land the right strategy at the right time. This persistent constraint — access to high-quality talent — remains underfunded and poorly understood.

In 2018, Open Capital's Arcadia initiative set out to test exactly this. Formally launched in 2018, Arcadia embedded Analysts into small & growing businesses (SGBs) across Africa for three to six months, executing 500+ placements. The Talent to Transform Africa (TTA) program, with support from Argidius Foundation, Blue Haven Initiative, Pace Able Foundation, and Vitol Foundation, targeted early-stage businesses through a heavily subsidized model to understand what talent subsidies could drive in underlying business growth. An independent evaluation of TTA conducted by Enabling Outcomes, funded by Argidius Foundation and completed in 2025, offers an honest account of what worked, where the model hit structural limits, and what future talent programs should do differently.

What Arcadia set out to test

The premise was straightforward: if SGBs could access the right talent at the right moment, growth would follow, and over time, we hoped the market might begin to pay for that talent on its own. Arcadia pursued two objectives simultaneously: enabling SGB growth by embedding Analysts to build financial systems, conduct market analysis, support capital raising, develop operational processes, and provide strategic advisory support; and developing a generation of African professionals with the skills and disposition to work in the SGB ecosystem.

What the evidence shows

Most importantly, CEOs who initially questioned the value of young analysts routinely came away impressed. Analysts strengthened sales and marketing, operations, and finance functions across the businesses they supported. Their work delivered foundational infrastructure that many SGBs lack and most investors expect: financial models, dashboards, profitability analysis, market intelligence, standard operating procedures, and business development support. 

Across businesses that provided post-placement data, the majority reported revenue growth in the year following placement, and several attributed capital raises or meaningful cost savings directly to Analyst work. Collectively, supported businesses raised more than $42M, a more than 30x leverage ratio on the initial subsidy provided. While the evidence base would benefit from more comprehensive longitudinal tracking, the directional findings are consistent across both quantitative data and qualitative case study evidence.

As one CEO put it: "If you don't have these systems as you grow, the business becomes a mess. These documents are unbelievably important."

Equally striking was how far Analysts outperformed their job descriptions. Formally positioned as entry-level placements, they frequently functioned as interim CFOs, deputy CEOs, and fundraising leads, solving problems in ways that blurred the line between an analyst placement and a consulting engagement. One founder reflected: "I realized I should hire for attitude and train for skills."

On the supply side, Arcadia built a cohort of professionals shaped by firsthand SGB experience. Many went on to careers in impact investing, advisory work, or entrepreneurship. As one Analyst put it: "After Arcadia, I just wanted to work with SGBs and startups to drive more capital in their direction." This is ecosystem-building that extends well beyond any individual placement.

Why the model struggled to scale

Product–market fit at unsubsidized rates. Founders consistently said the value exceeded what they paid — but that they could not have paid more. Even with subsidies averaging 78%, the Analyst was often the highest-paid person in the business. At commercial rates, demand was limited and the willingness-to-pay gap did not close over time.

COVID disruption to the embedded model. Arcadia's original value proposition was built around in-person, on-site placements. The pandemic required a pivot to remote delivery, which diluted the differentiation that the embedded model depended on. While this enabled continuity, it became harder to replicate the depth of engagement that had made the placements distinctive, affecting both perceived value and willingness to pay at commercial rates. 

Low delivery margins. The economics were thin, making it difficult to sustain the infrastructure the program required: pipeline management, data collection, and business development, without continued external support.

Evolving demand for more specialized capabilities. As SGBs matured, demand shifted toward more senior, specialized support: interim financial leadership, investment readiness, and fundraising management, that the generalist analyst model was not fully designed to provide.

Taken together, these structural challenges meant the model required fundamental redesign, and we had to discontinue Arcadia without external funding.

Four lessons for funders and program designers

The Arcadia experience points to four design principles worth embedding in future programs.

Subsidies are a structural feature of this market, not a temporary fix. Early-stage businesses cannot close the talent affordability gap on their own. High quality talent is the mechanism that unlocks commercial SGBs, but it requires an upfront subsidy.

Foundational systems-building is an essential but often overlooked investment in SGB growth. Some of the most impactful work Arcadia Analysts delivered was not headline-grabbing: financial dashboards, SOPs, profitability analysis, reporting systems, and operational processes that strengthened decision-making, commercial execution, and investor confidence. While these systems are rarely celebrated like fundraising or revenue growth, they are often the underlying infrastructure that enables sustainable growth. Future programmes should resource and measure systems-building as intentionally as they track capital raised or revenue growth.

Product–market fit must be tested at realistic price points from the outset. Strong demand at subsidized rates does not automatically translate to unsubsidized demand for the same product. CEOs preferred senior talent as their businesses became more sophisticated, and hired senior talent faster than our talent could become senior themselves. 

Talent positioning shapes the value proposition. Position future programs around the specialized outcomes businesses actually need: CFO-level financial oversight, fundraising leadership, and investment preparedness, rather than Analyst seniority or lack thereof, is likely to improve both perceived value and willingness-to-pay.

Impact tracking and attribution remains one of the hardest problems in SGB support. Businesses are difficult to reach once placements end, and despite our 30X leverage ratio, it’s hard to attribute this success directly to Arcadia. Future programs need creative solutions, whether through investor partnerships, alumni networks, or technology, to build the longitudinal evidence base that makes the investment case for talent over time.

An open question the ecosystem needs to engage with

There is a harder question the SGB ecosystem has not yet fully confronted. Much of the technical work Arcadia Analysts delivered, including financial modelling, dashboard building, and data analysis, falls within the category of work that AI tools are beginning to perform at lower cost. 

Yet some of Arcadia’s most valuable outcomes are also the hardest to measure. Beyond the systems, policies, and financial projections, the programme developed professionals who learned to navigate ambiguity, communicate credibly under pressure, solve problems in resource-constrained environments, and build trust with founders, investors, and teams. These are not skills that appear neatly on a deliverables list, and they are not capabilities that AI can easily replicate. They are the qualities that increasingly define professional effectiveness: judgement, adaptability, stakeholder management, and the ability to lead where information is incomplete and decisions carry real consequences.

Globally, AI is increasing returns to capital while decreasing returns to labour, yet Africa has the world's fastest-growing youth population, and entry-level analytical roles have long been a pathway into productive employment. If that pathway is narrowing, investing in talent programs matters more than ever — what those programs develop, and who they develop it for, needs to be part of the conversation. 

Seven years of honest, rigorous learning from Arcadia is a foundation worth building on. The talent gap has not closed, but the next intervention will need to be intentionally designed for a changing workforce, evolving business needs, and the realities of an AI-enabled economy. We’d love to discuss ways to build – please reach out if this is something you’re working on!