Free lessons · Madagascar, Mauritius and the Indian Ocean
Learn how funders read your file: lessons for SME founders
How a funder reads your file, one piece at a time. Short lessons written by the KAPEX team from files in the region, with dated and sourced figures.
4 lessons
Understand the investor’s decision
How an investor reads your file, in order
Before your idea, an investor checks who owns the business, then your documents, your numbers and your risks. This lesson shows that order and helps you prepare your file the same way.
9 minPreviewRead the lesson →
Why funders say no: ten rules from the field
A large share of refusals is decided before a committee reads the file: the owner gives up, or the account manager sets the request aside, for want of information the funder can check. Here are ten rules drawn from the reasons for refusal documented in the region, each with one thing to do this week.
12 minPreviewRead the lesson →
Who owns the company, all the way up to real people
Before reading your numbers, a bank or a fund wants to know who owns your company, up to the last real person. This lesson has you trace your own chain of shareholders, with the document that proves each link.
9 minPreviewRead the lesson →
Your accounts are not audited: what to do this year
Starting from scratch, audited accounts take four to six months. In the meantime there is an accurate answer to give in your dossier, and documents you can produce within the next three months.
8 minPreviewRead the lesson →
4 lessons
Build a credible file
Land in Madagascar: title, certificate, lease
Land only works as security if its documents agree with the register and with what is on the ground. You will read a land status certificate, then take your own plot through the questions an analyst asks.
8 minPreviewRead the lesson →
Your articles and your shareholders' agreement: what an analyst looks for
The articles are public and bind everyone; the shareholders’ agreement is private and binds only those who signed it. You will read both for the same company, then work out who can decide without whom.
8 minPreviewRead the lesson →
Mauritius: GBC, Authorised Company, or nothing at all
This lesson is for you if an investor has mentioned a Mauritian holding, or if you already have one. If your business and your investors are in Madagascar and nobody has raised Mauritius, you can leave it for later.
8 minPreview· When you get thereRead the lesson →
Tax and social: what stops a disbursement
The funding is approved, the agreement is signed, and the money does not move. Often a tax or social security certificate is missing that nobody asked for in time.
8 minPreviewRead the lesson →
6 lessons
Choose and negotiate financing
Loan, equity, mezzanine, grant: which one is for you, and what the words mean
At the “Funding” step of your file, two answers decide who will read it: the form of the money and the amount. This lesson helps you choose the form from what the money will pay for, then translates the words you will hear in meetings.
9 minPreviewRead the lesson →
Loan, partner, grant: what each kind of money costs in the region
A loan is paid for in interest, a partner in a share of the company, a grant in time and conditions. This lesson sets those prices side by side, with the region’s figures as of October 2026, then helps you pick the one that suits what you are financing.
9 minPreviewRead the lesson →
The price of money, country to country
Borrowing costs about twice as much in Antananarivo as in Port Louis, and a dollar loan does not solve that when your revenue is in ariary. This lesson has you work out what a fall in the ariary costs, then choose the currency of your debt.
7 minFree to readRead the lesson →
How much to ask for, and how to prove it
The amount you ask for is one of the first numbers a committee checks. This lesson builds it line by line, adds the line quotes often leave out, then puts it through the banker’s test.
9 minFree to readRead the lesson →
Opening your capital without losing the house
Many family businesses in the region turn down an investor in their capital, for fear of no longer deciding in their own house. This lesson puts a number on what bringing in a partner costs, then shows where control really sits: in the shareholders’ agreement, and in the security behind a loan.
8 minFree to readRead the lesson →
Reading a term sheet line by line
This lesson is for the day a fund sends you a term sheet, or is about to. It explains the document clause by clause and puts numbers on what two clauses do to your share of a sale, without replacing your lawyer.
9 minPreview· When you get thereRead the lesson →
2 lessons
Prove the business works financially
The financial model an analyst can argue with
A financial model is a list of assumptions you are prepared to defend in a meeting, one by one. This lesson shows how to build one an analyst can test, then has you work out whether your business can repay its loan.
9 minPreviewRead the lesson →
Profit on paper, empty till
A business can make money every month and still be unable to pay its staff. This lesson shows why with numbers, then has you work out your own.
9 minPreviewRead the lesson →
2 lessons
Show impact with evidence
SDGs, equality, impact: answering without bluffing
Your dossier asks for your SDGs, the place of women in your management and the jobs you create. This lesson ties each answer to a document you already have, so that it holds up on the day an investor checks it.
8 minPreviewRead the lesson →
Measuring without exhausting yourself: five numbers, five sources
Once you are funded, you will send your funders an impact report every year. For a fifteen-person company it comes down to five numbers taken from documents you already have, and one day of work spread across the year.
9 minPreview· When you get thereRead the lesson →
2 lessons
Handle the financing conversation
The committee: what is said in the room, without you
Your funding is decided in a meeting you will almost never attend. This lesson follows your file to that table and shows what gets asked there and what comes out.
8 minPreviewRead the lesson →
The questions you will be asked
The questions an investor or a banker will ask, grouped by theme, with what a good answer contains. For each one, the lesson in the track that prepares you for it.
9 minPreviewRead the lesson →
The full glossary →
170 business finance terms, explained once, without jargon.
Words you will hear in the meeting
From the lesson to your file
Check in two minutes whether your project fits the funders of the region, then create your account to follow the lessons with your own numbers. Free, no commitment.
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