Practice / Systems & Capital
Designing capital structures that serve patient, regenerative growth in emerging secondary and tertiary cities and underserved university towns.
Most capital ignores the places that matter most.
Across Africa and the Global South, thousands of secondary cities and university towns are brimming with latent potential, yet underserved by traditional finance models. These places need more than funding. They need capital that understands place: patient, regenerative, and deeply rooted in long-term value creation.
The Funds for Place Lab exists to meet that need.
What Is The Lab
The Lab is a catalytic research and design platform focused on prototyping capital structures tailored for place-based transformation, bridging investors and practitioners around shared values of long-term stewardship.
Prototyping capital structures tailored for place-based transformation
Bridging investors and practitioners around shared values of long-term stewardship
Researching models of regenerative finance that honor local rhythms, relationships, and realities
Building tools and funds that unlock growth in overlooked geographies
We believe that how we fund is just as important as what we fund.
Why Place-Based Capital
But transformative cities are built on patience, permanence, and purpose.
Secondary cities, where land is available, communities are cohesive, and legacies can be forged, offer unique opportunities for investment with spiritual, social, and economic return.
Yet they require new financial imaginations: blended capital stacks, long-horizon funds, cooperative models, and risk-tolerant philanthropic infrastructure.
This is what the Lab is here to design.
What We Do
Who We Work With
01
Mission-aligned funders & family offices
02
Redemptive builders and city shapers
03
Local institutions and cooperative movements
04
Think tanks, policy designers, and movement catalysts
05
Global south universities and development labs
Whether you're a funder rethinking your portfolio, a builder seeking aligned capital, or a policymaker exploring alternatives to extractive development models, the Funds for Place Lab offers a home for experimentation, insight, and implementation.