Introduction:

The Global Innovation Fund (GIF) is a non-profit innovation fund based in the United States and UK that offers grants, loans, equity investments and hybrid capital to support the development, testing and scaling of social solutions of benefit to low- and lower-middle income countries. Innovations of interest include new business models, policy practices, technologies, behavioural insights or approaches to delivering products and services with the potential to address an important development problem more effectively than existing approaches.

GIF has added a priority application route to support the development of innovations with the potential to contribute to the COVID-19 response - and pandemic recovery - in developing countries.

Call objectives:

The primary aim of the call is to:

• Deliver solutions for fighting the pandemic at the world's poorest countries, both the response and pandemic recovery.
• Provide solutions that meaningfully improve the lives of people living in countries that live with less than the equivalent to $2 per day.
• Provide scale-up solutions either commercially or through the public or not-for-profit sector.  

Call options:

GIF offers three stages of funding linked to stage of development:

• Pilot - seed capital to support the start-up and field-testing of innovations, including R&D.
• Test and Transition - supporting the continued growth, assessment and development of innovations that have already demonstrated success at a small scale.
• Scaling Up - expanding innovations with a strong track of social impact and effectiveness to achieve widespread adoption throughout one or more developing countries.

The fund seeks solutions that can scale-up either commercially or through the public or not-for-profit sector in order to achieve widespread adoption to solve any major development problem in low or lower-middle income countries.

Budget:

GIF offers funding ranging from $50,000 to $15 million. It operates a tiered financing model linked to its three funding stages:

• Pilot - early-stage development/operational finance for testing operational/financial/social viability of the innovation - up to $230,000.
• Test and Transition - some traction at small scale, ready to scale up testing - up to $2.3 million.
• Scaling Up - for proven innovations that are operationally/financially/socially/politically viable at scale - up to $15 million.

Any organisation or partnership of organisations may apply, including social enterprises, for-profit companies, non-profit organisations, government agencies, international organisations, and researchers in any country.

Projects/innovations should be based in or aim to benefit countries defined by the World Bank as low-income or lower-middle income countries (see link below this page).

GIF accepts applications on a rolling basis, with no specific deadline to apply. Applications must be made through the online application portal (see link below).

The application process involves six steps (initial application, information gathering, full application, due diligence, decision panel and funding agreement). GIF expects the average time for the whole process to take approximately six to nine months.