By Cedric Joutet – Principal

Capital exists. Connection does not.

Across the world, development and humanitarian needs are escalating, but capital is not flowing fast enough to meet them. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs estimates that the global requirement for humanitarian aid in 2025 stands at US $45.48 billion, yet only 19 percent of that requirement had been funded by the end of August 2025. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development projects a US $6.4 trillion annual financing gap for sustainable development in emerging and developing economies by 2030.

At the same time, private capital is abundant. Institutional investors hold over US $200 trillion in global assets, with a growing proportion earmarked for sustainable and impact-oriented investment. The issue is not the supply of capital. The issue is that many high-impact projects remain structurally unready to receive it.

Human Planet’s accelerator was created to close this readiness gap. It equips social enterprises, nongovernmental organisations, and development actors with the tools, language, and financial architecture to attract non-grant capital. Early traction from our first cohorts demonstrates that when clarity replaces complexity, impact becomes investable. Here are my five lessons learned. 

Lesson One: Readiness before innovation

Imagination drives change, but readiness drives investment. In our early cohorts, the strongest breakthroughs did not come from new products or ideas. They came from teams learning to translate social outcomes into investment logic.

Participants refined their financial models, clarified metrics, and built risk-management frameworks that aligned with investor expectations. They learned to speak in outcomes, not activities. One cohort lead put it succinctly: “We stopped describing what we do and started explaining what we deliver.”

This shift is crucial. Readiness is not a final milestone at the end of an innovation cycle. It is the structure that sustains the entire cycle. In a climate of shrinking aid budgets international humanitarian assistance fell by 11 percent in 2024 according to ALNAP projects that remain grant-dependent risk stalling. Readiness offers resilience.

Lesson Two: Engagement beats instruction

Knowledge builds capability, but interaction builds conviction. Traditional accelerator models often rely on workshops and technical sessions. We have found that learning accelerates when founders engage directly with investors, even in preliminary conversations.

During our investor simulations, participants received candid feedback from impact funds, family offices, and development finance institutions. The result was transformative. Documentation quality improved faster, narratives became clearer, and confidence grew. Our internal data show that teams exposed to investor interaction achieved investment-ready status nearly 50 percent faster than those working in isolation.

As one participant observed, “When I explained our model to an investor, I realised that clarity itself is impact.”

Lesson Three: Simplicity scales faster than complexity

Blended finance has become the most discussed tool in the impact ecosystem. Convergence’s State of Blended Finance 2025 report notes that 123 transactions in 2024 mobilised approximately US $18 billion, with climate-related projects representing nearly half of all deals. Yet, despite the headlines, many initiatives remain too complex for replication.

In our cohorts, teams that began with multi-layered capital stacks combining grants, concessional debt, and guarantees progressed slower than those who focused on a single, clearly defined mechanism. When simplicity led, traction followed.

Investors reward clarity. A straightforward risk-return narrative supported by verifiable impact data attracts far more engagement than a technically sophisticated but opaque structure.

Lesson Four: Local ownership builds global confidence

The most investable projects in our accelerator share one feature: deep local leadership. Teams embedded in their contexts navigate regulatory, cultural, and operational risks more effectively than external consultants ever could.

Local ownership does not just ensure relevance; it builds trust with investors who increasingly scrutinise implementation risk. As one East African cohort leader reflected, “We built the model around our community, not the other way around. That made investors listen.”

This approach aligns with Human Planet’s philosophy. Financing design should enable local execution, not replace it. Our role is to connect expertise, not to centralise it.

Lesson Five: Traction is a signal, not a destination

A signed term sheet is an important step, but it is not the end of the journey. The true test of impact finance is whether capital translates into measurable, lasting outcomes.

Human Planet remains engaged with its alumni beyond the programme. We support transaction execution, investor reporting, and scaling plans. The objective is not to produce pitch decks; it is to create functioning pipelines.

Early traction is therefore a signal. It shows that an idea has moved from promise to proof. But the next phase of execution and learning is where lasting systems change occurs.

Taken together, these lessons point to a broader insight: the development and climate finance ecosystem does not lack intent; it lacks structure. The global financing gap will not be bridged by new slogans or campaigns. It will be bridged by disciplined mechanisms that connect capital to context.

This is where Human Planet’s model adds tangible value. By combining advisory expertise, investment structuring, and local delivery networks, we create credible vehicles for catalytic finance. We are part of a growing movement to turn commitments into commitments fulfilled.

Conclusion

The early success of Human Planet’s accelerator cohorts is a microcosm of a larger truth. When ideas are structured with clarity, supported by credible data, and owned by local actors, capital moves.

The global funding gap remains vast, tens of billions in humanitarian aid unmet, trillions in sustainable development finance still required. Yet every project that becomes investment-ready brings that gap a little closer to closing.

This is what early traction means. It is not just progress within a programme. It is a signal that systems can change when clarity meets capital.

Ready. Impact. Scale.
That is the Human Planet way.