Connecting people to fast, reliable and affordable internet opens up opportunities for businesses, families and entire communities. Yet until recently, large parts of Nepal remained unconnected. Less than a third of the population had internet access and only 6% of households had fixed broadband subscriptions in 2018.
When we first invested in internet service provider WorldLink in 2019, we backed a company that was ready to do something new: take high quality, fibre-to-the-home internet connection beyond Kathmandu Valley and into Nepal’s smaller cities and remote areas. Our funding also helped unlock capital for WorldLink from Dolma Impact Fund and FinnFund. It was a bold move at the time, particularly given the nascency of fibre-to-the-home in Nepal, but since then WorldLink has grown from around 300,000 customers to more than one million, with most of that expansion happening outside Kathmandu Valley.
In doing so, WorldLink showed that building a commercially viable fibre network beyond major cities is possible. And the rest of the market responded. Other internet service providers followed into new regions; prices fell, speeds increased, and services improved for consumers. Rural and urban households alike have benefited from the competition and innovation. As of 2024, 48% of households have access to fixed broadband, up from 6% in 2018.
This evaluation looks at that journey. As well as WorldLink’s growth, it explores how one company’s progress can help shift an entire market. It is one of the clearest examples in our portfolio of how patient capital, at the right moment, can help a pioneering business unlock broader change. It also comes at a time when BII is sharpening its focus on market-level impact. The insights from this evaluation are helping shape how we apply this approach in our next strategy cycle.
We are learning from the study in other ways too. It shows the value of backing and providing consistent support to strong local market leaders who are ready to expand into underserved areas. It highlights how important it is for our capital to be flexible, so companies can take long-term decisions in markets with difficult economics. And it reinforces that building commercially viable models that reach lower-income or last-mile customers often depends on having a stable base of higher-margin customers first.
We are grateful to Greencroft Economics and Wellspring Development for leading this study, and to WorldLink for their support facilitating it. We hope that the findings offer useful lessons for others across the impact investment community working to deliver market-level impact.
