In early 2018, the KP board had expressed enthusiasm for creating a grants initiative in India. However, as KP Portfolio Director Cindy Chen and her team started doing diligence on organizations in India, they found a number of challenges when it came to the pipeline of potential grantees. Indeed, the vast majority of organizations were small, working in only a few communities across just one or two of India's 29 states and 7 union territories. Equally problematic, few of the organizations they looked at in India had a demonstrated capacity to scale across the country, or even interventions that were scalable. This mattered because KP, for reasons both practical and philosophical, focused on organizations that could scale their impact. Additional concerns from the KP board regarded the extent of corruption in India, and the impact this might have on philanthropic endeavors. There were also some questions as to need. India, at that moment in time, had more people living in extreme poverty than any other country in the world. But this number was declining rapidly even as the number of extreme poor in sub-Saharan Africa rose. These discussions were crucial for a highly intentional, mission-driven philanthropy. But they also created something of a quandary for Chen, who had joined KP as a consultant in 2016 and become portfolio director in September 2017. The choice she faced seemed to be two-fold. She could recommend that KP forego investing in India and instead expand its investment in Africa, or she could continue the search for high-impact, scalable organizations in India. This case tracks Chen's thought processes as she reflected on KP, its mission, and its existing portfolio; considered the options; and decided which option to recommend to the KP board when it met to make this critical funding decision that could impact the lives of millions of people.

This case explores the International Finance Corporation's (IFC) creative and effective use of the private equity business model as a tool to mobilize financing for economic development around the world. In its bid to provide more capital for private sector investment in developing countries, IFC played a key role in the emergence of the private equity industry in these markets through its funds' investments and, later, created its own third-party fund management platform-IFC Asset Management Company (AMC). Through the experience of AMC, the case considers broader issues typically faced by a private equity business in setting its strategy. These include: how can a fund manager decide the optimal size of assets under management? Given its resources and capabilities, what new funds could a firm raise, and what sectors should it target? The case further delves into the working mechanisms of AMC and thereby explains how AMC, as a special type of fund manager, handles different phases of private equity business. Finally, the case considers the key challenges IFC and AMC face today and assesses what the future might hold for each. As the largest global development institution focusing on the private sector, IFC had been an important player in developing countries. However, IFC's target markets continue to rapidly evolve and attract more capital and players, both local and international. How could IFC stay relevant and continue to play a differentiated leadership role in emerging markets under these circumstances? What other products and services could it offer to support the private sector in these countries in a distinct and impactful way?