Catalyst: Empowering the Entrepreneurial Spirit in Madagascar

The Problem: Madagascar’s entrepreneurs have been hindered by poverty and political instability.

The Solution: Business education, a peer network, and ongoing support help established enterprises scale.

More than two decades ago, Aymeric Fraise, MBA ’06, wrote his Stanford application from his homeland of Madagascar. Now he has come full circle, introducing Seed, a Stanford Graduate School of Business initiative that delivers business training to entrepreneurs in emerging markets, to the Indian Ocean nation. “There’s alignment now toward trying to solve poverty through economic improvement, and this is just one step in that direction,” Fraise says. “I’m very happy I was able to go to Stanford (as well as my cousin, Christophe Fraise, MBA ’98) and I’m finally bringing Stanford back to where my family comes from.”

Seed’s flagship program, the Seed Transformation Program, began in 2013 in Africa and has since expanded to South Asia and Indonesia. Fraise’s family has played a leading role in launching Seed’s presence in Madagascar in 2022 and fostering its growth. In all its locations, Seed provides in-person and remote training and ongoing support to established enterprises, helping identify opportunities for growth and impact. “The beauty of it is that Stanford comes to you,” Fraise says, giving the example of weeklong classroom sessions where professors travel to the region to teach on a variety of topics from leadership to accounting to marketing.

Madagascar, the world’s second-largest island nation, has been plagued by a lack of good governance, and 75% of its population lives in poverty. It may seem to be an unlikely climate for fostering entrepreneurship — but that’s exactly where Fraise views the opportunity. “If you can create employment and financial liberty for people, that’s the best way to move a country forward,” he says.

So far, 14 Malagasy business owners have completed or are enrolled in the program. They include Iharizaka Rahaingoson, owner of the fintech company Ibonia and president of the Madagascar chapter of Seed. Another is Faranah Goulamaly, whose business, Les Ateliers Feel Good, employs more than 1,200 female artisans to craft luxury raffia bags and accessories. “Seed gave us the strategic framework to think bigger and diversify our international customer portfolio, expand our enterprise into new materials and product categories, and pursue our ambition of becoming a pan-African platform for entrepreneurship and impact,” she says. According to Seed, 79% of firms report increased revenues after completing the program.

Fraise was “made in Madagascar,” where his French grandfather founded a vanilla bean export business in 1921. Subsequent generations of his family expanded their holdings into one of the country’s largest conglomerates, Henri Fraise Fils & Co., with businesses ranging from the management of electric power stations to the rental, maintenance, and leasing of industrial equipment and machinery.

Although Fraise now lives in Singapore, he maintains close ties to both Madagascar and Stanford GSB. His Seed support is inspired by the philanthropic concept of “the three Ts” — giving time, talent, and treasure to foster meaningful change and connection. He invests time in interviewing prospective MBA students and has also used his talent for connection to build Seed’s presence in Madagascar. Funding a scholarship for Stanford GSB students from Indian Ocean rim countries is a good use of his “treasure,” he says. His family has contributed by covering hosting costs for Seed’s global Leadership Council meeting in Antananarivo — a gathering of roughly 25 Seed business leaders from 13 African and Asian countries who lead local initiatives for Seed.

The Leadership Council gathering was postponed by a few months when Madagascar’s president was ousted, the most recent upheaval the country has endured since achieving independence in 1960. Rescheduled to February 2026, the event drew government and business leaders and ambassadors. “You can’t crush the entrepreneurial spirit, and the grassroots are still growing,” Fraise says. “To me, that’s everything.”

Now, Fraise sees broader economic possibilities for Madagascar. “I’m a big believer that this century is an Indian Ocean story,” he says. “If you look at the arc from the seaboard of Africa all the way to the seaboard of Asia, you’ve got almost 50% of the global population there, with demographics that are very favorable toward economic prosperity. I sit on the eastern seaboard in Singapore, and Madagascar is on the western seaboard. I’m trying to connect that arc.”