Economic development in East Africa is expected to be spurred by small and medium size businesses. Indeed they are widely regarded as the engines of growth since they provide the largest employment and tax revenue opportunity for developing countries.

However, these businesses lack reliable and timely information and performance rankings to facilitate planning and growth by enabling them to compare their individual performance and position in their respective industries - nationally and regionally. More importantly, they need to use this information to attract investors especially local, regional, and global investors who can inject much-needed and low cost capital into the business.

Growth500.com is an investment portal that seeks to fulfil this gap by providing essential business, industry, and market information collected from the fastest growing small, medium, and large businesses in East Africa. We want to make it simpler, quicker and more affordable for businesses, investors, and other stakeholders to find business and industry performance information.

Our vision is to proactively recognize, encourage, support and sustain the rapid growth of productive and profitable businesses and industries in East Africa. Our mission is to develop and maintain a world-class resource information centre that aggregates and organizes relevant business and industry information in East Africa to achieve the following objectives:

1. Undertake an Online Survey to identify the 500 fastest growing businesses in East Africa.

2. Release Business Rankings higlighting the specific performance of participating businesses.

3. Release Industry Rankings summarizing the performance averages of each industry.

Through various initiatives and activities, Growth 500 will provide businesses, investors, and other stakeholders with the following benefits: