MicroVest was formed as a microfinance investment fund, and fund manager, by CARE and MEDA, later joined by the Cordes Foundation.

The CEO of MicroVest was Gil Crawford, who served in that role from 2003 to 2021.

As MicroVest’s CEO, he led the launch of MicroVest I, LP, the first commercial private equity vehicle focused on microfinance in North America.

Before helping to set up MicroVest Capital Management, Mr. Crawford worked for the Latin American Financial Markets Division at the International Finance Corporation (IFC), where he focused on investments in microfinance institutions. Prior to joining IFC, Mr. Crawford created and ran Seed Capital Development Fund, a US based non‐profit firm, involved in creating financial instruments and attracting funds to capitalize microfinance institutions, primarily in Latin America, Asia and Africa, and was the Assistant Project Director for Africa Venture Capital Project, designed to create risk capital firms in Africa. 

Mr. Crawford received his bank training at Chase Manhattan Bank after working in Africa for the Red Cross and State Department. He is a graduate of SAIS at Johns Hopkins University and Bates College.

MicroVest launched MV I, LP in 2004 with $15 million in assets, which was leveraged three times over the life of the Fund. In 2007, MV closed MicroAccess Trust 2007, a $39 million collateralized debt obligation. A year later, MV launched MicroVest II, LP, a $60 million private equity microfinance fund.

At the end of 2008, MV’s assets under management had grown to $76.8 million.  In the summer of 2009, MV became a registered investment advisor under the SEC. In 2010, MV launched the Short Duration Fund (SDF) as well as the Access Africa Fund, and hired an internal, full time General Counsel.  By the middle of 2011, MV’s assets under management had reached $140 million.

In 2012 MicroVest assumed management of Minlam Microfinance Fund, a $47 million debt fund making loans in local currencies, bringing AUM to over $200 million for the first time.

In 2018 the company launched the Extended Duration Fund (EDF), backed by leverage from an innovative facility with the US Development Finance Corporation (then OPIC).  This facility was upsized in 2021. 

MicroVest also became a certified B Corporation in 2020.  Companies that undergo B Corp certification are subject to rigorous third-party evaluation of performance across the following five areas: governance, workers, customers, community, and the environment. They must also meet transparency, accountability and legal requirements that support a commitment to stakeholder impact for the long term. In 2021 the company was bought by global development company DAI Global, and was renamed DAI Asset Management. 

In early 2025 MicroVest became an independent unit of pioneering non-profit impact investment firm SEAF, and reverted to its original name.  MicroVest now benefits from access to SEAF’s global investment teams, on the ground in 28 countries across Latin America and the Caribbean, MENA and sub-Saharan Africa, Eastern and Central Europe, and Central, South, and Southeast Asia.