HAMBURG, HSC: Governments and several of the world’s leading institutional investors today launched SCALED Development, a new investment service firm designed to mobilize billions in private capital for sustainable development in emerging markets and developing economies. The new company builds on the SCALED initiative, which brings together Germany, Canada, Denmark, France, the United Kingdom, South Africa, AXA SA, Allianz, Zurich Insurance Group and La Caisse.

Initial shareholders of the company are KfW (on behalf of Germany), FinDev Canada (on behalf of Canada), Allianz and Zurich. The Governments of Germany and Canada have already committed up to EUR 130 million in capital to unlock multiples in private investment flows via SCALED Development.

The initiative comes at a pivotal moment for international development finance. Public budgets are tightening across the globe, while demand for investment in climate action, infrastructure and economic transformation continues to rise sharply. At the same time, institutional investors are seeking long-term opportunities in emerging markets and developing countries.

At its core, SCALED is designed to solve a practical problem for the efficient collaboration of public and private capital. Instead of requiring bespoke structures, separate documentation, intense negotiations, and ad‑hoc processes for every transaction, SCALED is advancing standardization so that capital can move faster, more efficiently and at greater scale.

“SCALED marks a breakthrough for development finance,” said Germany’s Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development, Reem Alabali Radovan. “It is clear that public finance alone will never be sufficient to tackle the major challenges and crises of our time. We need additional structures that are capable of mobilizing private capital at scale, which is exactly what SCALED is designed to do.”

“SCALED is building the platform to industrialize blended finance — standardized, faster, and cost-efficient. It expands governments’ capacity while delivering attractive, repeatable investment opportunities for institutional investors,” said Günther Thallinger, Member of the Board of Management of Allianz SE.

“Through SCALED, Canada is collaborating with public and private partners to close the gap in development finance and unlock capital to support global economic growth,” emphasized Randeep Sarai, Canada’s Secretary of State (International Development),” while Peter Maurer, Member of the Board of Directors of Zurich Insurance Group, added that “public-private cooperation of the kind shown by SCALED will be essential,” noting the need “to translate ambition into practical, scalable solutions and unlock capital at meaningful scale.”

“What we need is a system that can repeatedly turn investor interest into investment,” said Martin Ewald, Managing Director of SCALED Development. “SCALED is building that system by creating common structures, common standards, and a more efficient pathway for capital to reach sustainable investment opportunities.”

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, OECD, and the Inter-American Development Bank, IDB, support SCALED as knowledge partners. SCALED‘s Secretariat is implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH. 

Further Information: www.scaledevelopment.org

Contact: scaled-secretariat@giz.de