The Global Innovation Fund is a non-profit, impact-first investment fund headquartered in London with offices in Washington, D.C. and Nairobi. We invest in the development, rigorous testing, and scaling up of new products, services, business process, or policy reforms that are more cost-effective than current practice and targeted at improving the lives of the world’s poorest people.
Through our grants and risk capital, we support these breakthrough solutions from for-profit firms, non-profit organisations, researchers, and government agencies to maximise their impact and catalyse meaningful change. Because the best ideas for solving some of the world’s most critical development problems can come from anyone, anywhere, we provide an open window to receive innovative ideas and assess whether they are right for GIF investment.
We accept applications on a continuous basis, with no deadlines or ’rounds’ of funding. In addition to this open application window, we actively seek out investments. Our review process is highly selective and rigorous, and less than 10% of applicants are invited to submit full proposals.
Awards:
GIF has a staged funding approach, whereby the amount of funding available is tiered according to the level of maturity of your innovation and the activities proposed. The three tiers are:
- Pilot – the innovation is at an early stage but you have a credible plan for how it can be developed and tested in a real-world setting. Funding of up to USD 230,000 is available to test core assumptions around operational, social, and financial viability.
- Test and transition – the innovation has already shown promise of success at a small scale, and you have some information on your operational, social, and financial viability which you want to solidify before you scale. Funding of up to USD 2.3 million is available to support further growth and generate additional evidence on whether the innovation can achieve social impact and market viability, for commercial innovations.
- Scale – the innovation has a strong evidence base and logistically credible plan for scaling to reach millions of people. Funding of up to USD 15 million is available to expand the reach of innovations with a view to reaching millions of people in the long term if successful.
In the event you are invited to submit a full application, the GIF team can advise on the most appropriate stage of funding for your proposal. More information on GIFs tiered approach can be found on the Stage of Funding section of the GIF website.
Deadline: Ongoing
