Technical assistance for the people you fund.
We partner with challenge funds, development finance institutions, and impact investors to embed human-centred design directly into the companies, entrepreneurs, and innovators they support.
You bring the capital.
We bring the communities.
Challenge funds, innovation programmes, and impact investors back solutions that are meant to work for underserved communities. Too often, those solutions stall. Not because the funding ran out. Because the design missed the mark.
We come in as a technical assistance partner. Our teams work directly with the companies and innovators you back, in their markets, using design research, field testing, and coaching to close the gap between good intentions and real adoption.
Two ways we work as a TA partner.
Supporting the innovators in your programme
You have identified the most promising solutions. We help them become stronger. Our teams work alongside grantees and competition finalists to sharpen their understanding of end users, test assumptions in real settings, and build HCD capacity that lasts beyond the programme.
Strengthening the companies you back
Your portfolio companies are building in complex, underserved markets. We help them understand the people they are designing for, reduce adoption risk, and generate the user evidence that supports scale. From early-stage design research to post-investment capability building, we provide the TA that helps good investments perform.
delivered
in our network
in the field
TA across programmes and portfolios.
From plastic waste entrepreneurs in West Africa to electric motorcycle riders in East Africa, we have worked as a TA partner on programmes and portfolios that span sectors, markets, and investment structures.
Afriplastics Challenge
Challenge Works engaged Proportion to provide innovation support to African entrepreneurs tackling plastic waste. We worked directly with challenge finalists to deepen their understanding of the communities and contexts they were designing for.
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HCD Coaching of African Companies
CFYE brought Proportion in to build HCD capacity in a cohort of companies working on youth employment. We coached teams through design research and user-centred iteration, equipping them to keep improving after the programme ended.
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Design Research for Women-Focused Companies
SPRING commissioned Proportion to conduct design research alongside women-focused companies in their accelerator portfolio. The research gave investees a clearer picture of the women they were designing for and the barriers that shape their decisions.
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Charging as a Service, East Africa
British International Investment commissioned Proportion as a technical assistance partner to ROAM, their East Africa e-mobility portfolio company. We conducted rider-centred research across four markets to understand how Charging as a Service could work for electric motorcycle riders. The research reframed fast charging as an income-protection tool and identified scalable pathways for a mixed charging ecosystem.
View case"Human to human was really exceptional."
Innovation Challenges
Across four country-level innovation challenges, Proportion provided hands-on TA to youth entrepreneurs developing solutions for their communities. We supported teams from early ideation through to field-tested prototypes, combining HCD coaching with structured design sprints.
View casesRunning a programme or portfolio that needs design support?
Tell us about the companies or innovators you are backing. A 30-minute call is the fastest way to find out whether we are the right technical assistance partner.
Talk to us about your programme