The G20 launched the Challenge in August 2010 in an effort to identify innovations in small business finance and the Forum was tasked with administering it.
Fourteen winners were selected based on criteria such as innovation, leverage, social and economic impact, and sustainability. Thirteen winners received US$ 22 million in funding from Canada, the Republic of Korea, the Netherlands, the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID), and the United States Agency for In¬ternational Development (USAID), which enabled them to implement their winning proposals.
All the Challenge winners have already completed their projects. As of December 2015, the 13 Challenge winners that received grants have gone on to provide financing and technical assistance to more than 233,000 SMEs. They disbursed or facilitated over US$ 2 billion in funding for SMEs. In addition, several Challenge winners have developed innovative SME finance tools and provided training to SMEs.