Making Frontier Markets Investable: Lessons from CrossBoundary Group

Frontier markets – fragile, low-income economies often excluded from mainstream investment flows – require a fundamentally different approach to capital deployment. CrossBoundary Group has spent over a decade doing exactly that: demonstrating the investability of markets that most investors won't touch, using blended finance structures, on-the-ground expertise, and catalytic capital to reduce risk and attract investment where it otherwise wouldn't go.

In this talk, Jake Cusack and Tom Flahive – co-founders CrossBoundary Group – will explore what it actually takes to invest at the frontier, the structuring challenges, the risk realities, and the role that concessional and aid funding has historically played in making deals possible. With USAID funding cuts now removing a critical source of catalytic capital from these markets, Jake and Tom will also reflect on what this means for the frontier investment model and for development more broadly.

This event is part of CID’s Road to GEM programming, which convenes global leaders in the months leading up to GEM26: Reimagining International Development. Through these conversations, CID is exploring how shifting geopolitics, constrained resources, and evolving development models are redefining what effective, inclusive international development can look like in the decades ahead.

This event is hosted by the Harvard Center for International Development and will be held in a hybrid format. All are welcome. Harvard ID holders are encouraged to attend in person, while non-HUID guests are invited to join via livestream or access the event recording afterward.

Join Jake and Tom for casual networking at the Graftons after the event.