Highlights
In 2025, MASSIF continued to deliver on its mandate as a catalytic investor in inclusive and sustainable financial systems. It did so while contributing to the implementation of FMO’s Strategy 2030 and advancing its own strategy, The Next Frontier, with a continued focus on financially underserved markets and segments, and innovative approaches.
Through a combination of targeted investments, capacity development and active portfolio management, MASSIF expanded access to finance for underserved micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) and strengthened the resilience of financial institutions and their end beneficiaries to climate-related risks. At the same time, several long-standing investments were successfully concluded after achieving their development objectives.
These activities were complemented by the further rollout of risk‑sharing and blended finance solutions, enabling financial institutions to extend financing to client segments that would otherwise remain excluded. Together, these developments illustrate MASSIF’s continued additionality, long-term impact and prudent stewardship of its mandate. The highlights below showcase how MASSIF translated its strategy into tangible results in 2025.
Blended investment supporting fintech‑enabled SME finance
In 2025, MASSIF invested jointly with FMO-A in Lula Lend (Pty) Ltd, a South Africa‑based fintech providing working capital to underserved MSMEs, illustrating the use of blended finance to support systemic market development. The investment comprises a local‑currency facility with a ZAR‑equivalent committed tranche of $10 million funded by MASSIF, with the option of providing funding from FMO-A as the client progresses over time. This enables long‑term ZAR financing and reducing foreign‑exchange risk for the investee and its borrowers. Lula is active across South Africa and is differentiated by its technology‑driven lending model. The company uses automated credit assessment to serve MSMEs that typically do not qualify for traditional bank loans, including a large share of first‑time borrowers. Through this potential joint investment, MASSIF and FMO-A support will increase access to finance for small businesses, contributing to inclusive economic growth and employment in an underserved segment of the market.
Strengthening climate resilience through capacity development
Through its capacity development activities, MASSIF continued supporting the launch of the MASSIF Climate Resilience Pilot, aimed at strengthening the ability of financial institutions and their end beneficiaries to manage and adapt to climate‑related risks. During the year, capacity development contributions were provided to participating clients, including JSC Microbank Crystal, Annapurna Finance, SAFCO Microfinance and Banco Contactar, marking a new stage of pilot implementation. The pilot focuses on building institutional awareness of climate risk, conducting climate risk assessments, and identifying practical financial and non‑financial risk management solutions - such as risk reduction, risk retention and risk transfer measures - tailored to client portfolios, with a particular focus on agri‑ and agri‑adjacent sectors. The work undertaken in 2025 laid the foundation for deeper implementation, learning and potential scaling of climate resilience approaches across the broader MASSIF as well as FMO portfolio.
Successful exits from long-standing investments
In late 2025, MASSIF completed several substantial and successful exits from long‑standing portfolio investments. As such, MASSIF’s lower committed portfolio at year end reflects its success as a patient, catalytic investor supporting institutions over extended periods to maturity, facilitating their transition to private ownership structures. One example is the exit from Advans SICAR, a Luxembourg‑based holding company owning a network of microfinance institutions across Africa, following many years of involvement and support. Over the investment period, MASSIF invested a total of $18.8 million in Advans. The exit yielded a positive return on investment.
Launch of Nasira+ with MASSIF contribution
In 2025, Nasira+ was signed, building on the success of the original NASIRA program and further expanding FMO’s use of blended finance to support underserved entrepreneurs. The program is supported by the European Fund for Sustainable Development Plus (EFSD+), with MASSIF contributing up to €29.4 million alongside FMO to help enable increased lending to micro, small and medium‑sized enterprises that are typically excluded from formal financial systems, including women, youth and other underserved groups. While the contractual framework was established in 2025, the first guarantee contracts under Nasira+ are expected to be signed later in 2026, as origination under the program commences.
Financial performance
For the year ended 31 December 2025, MASSIF reported a loss of €31.4 million, primarily reflecting foreign exchange effects, as a large share of the portfolio is denominated in US dollars. At the same time, income from equity investments improved significantly compared to the previous year, providing a more positive underlying performance trend.