Global Innovation Fund

While we wait to discover who has won The Earthshot Prize this year, we are pleased to celebrate two prize-winning companies in our #portfolio. In 2023, S4S Technologies won the Earthshot Prize for its #innovative approach to building a waste-free world, while Boomitra was a winner for its work to fix our climate.   We took these lovely photographs of Nidhi Pant from S4S Technologies and Aadith Moorthy from Boomitra when they were in London in June for London Climate Action Week. We wish all this year's finalists the best of luck for tonight's ceremony - and welcome this prestigious award's mission to deliver impact at scale. #innovatingtogether #scalingimpact #socialimpact #internationaldevelopment #climateaction #climatechange

Advancing gender-smart capital at scale! The #2024AVPACconference featured an empowering masterclass from 2X Global, focused on unlocking the potential of gender-smart investing through the 2X Certification and 2X Challenge. Moderated by Liebe Jeannot, CFA, this insightful session featured Edna Karanja, who delved into the 2X Challenge, and Nafisa Bhikhoo, discussing the newly launched 2X Certification. Together, they provided essential strategies for driving impactful, gender-focused investment. The panel also included key voices like Audrey Obara from Swedfund International, Joseph Ssentongo from the Global Innovation Fund, and Christophe de Montille from Beyond Capital Ventures, who shared their experiences with 2X Global. Together, they’re paving the way for inclusive growth and equity across the investment landscape! #CatalyseAfrica #ImpactInvesting #AVPA2024

GIF Growth is designed to fill the #financinggap that high-impact companies are facing in #emergingmarkets. It has been developed to leverage commitments made by our government partners, and with the goal of deploying $100M to save and improve the lives of over 100M people in low- and middle-income countries. At our recent launch in Washington DC, we were delighted to welcome #investors, government donors and GIF investees, as well as representatives from U.S. Congress, multilateral organisations and think tanks, to a reception kindly hosted by James Roscoe and supported by the brilliant team at the British Embassy Washington. Thank you to all our #donors for sharing our vision and your ongoing support and insights. #innovatingtogether #impactinvesting #socialimpact #internationaldevelopment Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office - Research, Science and Innovation Sida U.S. International Development Finance Corporation KOICA Embassy of Sweden in USA

GIF Growth is a truly #multilateral vehicle, developed to leverage commitments made by our government partners. Our goal is to deploy $100M to save and improve the lives of over 100M people in low- and middle-income countries. This includes $10M which has already been committed from the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, which will be matched by private investors. At our GIF Growth #launch, kindly hosted the James Roscoe, MVO and the team at the British Embassy Washington, we were delighted to welcome James Polan, the DFC’s Vice President of the Office of #Health and #Agribusiness, who confirmed the DFC’s support as an anchor investor. Our thanks to James and the DFC’s Richard Greenberg and Bethel Stevens, CFA Stevens for their partnership. It’s great to be working with you to catalyse both philanthropic and private capital to support entrepreneurs to fulfil their growth and impact potential. Read more about our launch here: https://lnkd.in/edra_En4 - and about GIF Growth here: https://lnkd.in/ggW5fcGk #internationaldevelopment #socialimpact #usaid #innovatingtogether

GIF Growth is the next step in GIF's mission of delivering #impact at #scale. Statistics show that less than one in six organisations that raise seed funding are able to go on and raise their next round of financing in five years. In a new film, leaders of three of GIF’s portfolio companies articulate the need for this new #investment vehicle, alongside GIF executives Joseph Ssentongo and Avinash Mishra. Daniel Schnitzer, CEO and Founder of SparkMeter, is one of the #entrepreneurs featured. He says: “A lot of investors would never even have taken a look at SparkMeter or taken a look and decided to pass because of the markets that we're serving. We would have not been able to scale up the same way that we have now if it was not for the support and the funding from GIF. “SparkMeter has now sold meters to mini grid companies in Africa that have collectively connected well over a million people to access to electricity that previously did not exist. We wouldn't have gotten to where we are today without the early support and de-risking that GIF and others took on.” Our thanks to Dan, Aadith Moorthy from Boomitra and Nidhi Pant from S4S Technologies for being such great spokespeople for our work. Find out more here: https://lnkd.in/ggW5fcGk #innovatingtogether #internationaldevelopment #socialimpact Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office - Research, Science and Innovation #aid

GIF Growth has launched as a truly #multilateral investment vehicle. As well as securing the backing of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, we are delighted to welcome KOICA, the #Korea International Cooperation Agency, as our newest partner - and we were honoured that representatives from KOICA were able to join us at our launch event, hosted by James Roscoe, MVO and support by the wonderful team at the British Embassy Washington. You-ah Chung, Director-General of KOICA's Partnership Programme, formally announced the new #partnership, saying: "We are proud to join this alliance of development finance, bilateral and public sector donors working together to transform the lives of people living in low- and middle- income countries. "KOICA's support will provide complementary technical assistance to investments made by the GIF Growth fund, enabling small- and medium-sized enterprises to scale their projects to reach those most in need.  We hope that others will join us in supporting the fund’s development and work with us to achieve this ambitious goal of saving and improving over 100 million lives by 2030." You can read more about our launch event here: https://lnkd.in/eqQPaYNa Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office - Research, Science and Innovation #innovatingtogether #socialimpact #internationaldevelopment

We were delighted to formally launch our new returnable capital #investment vehicle, GIF Growth, at a reception in Washington DC, to coincide with the Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the The World Bank. #GIFGrowth is designed to fill the financing gap that high-impact companies are facing in emerging markets. It has been developed to leverage commitments made by our government partners, and with the goal of deploying $100M to save and improve the lives of over 100M people in low- and middle-income countries. The event was kindly hosted by James Roscoe, MVO, the UK Government’s Deputy Head of Mission to the United States, in recognition of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office's role as GIF’s anchor funder.   In #emergingmarkets, seed and angel funding is small and limited, grant capital is scarce, and the landscape for early- to mid-growth stage investors is fragmented. Capital to take highly impactful innovations to scale is even scarcer.   GIF Growth’s success will serve as an important signal to the investor market that high impact innovations are investable, can reach scale, and be commercially sustainable. Thank you to our friends and colleagues at Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office - Research, Science and Innovation and the British Embassy Washington for making our launch such a great success. Read more about the launch here: https://lnkd.in/eqQPaYNa #innovatingtogether #socialimpact #internationaldevelopment #growth.

Today we say a fond farewell to Christoph Sieker who has been working as an Investment Associate in our #riskcapital team in London, on a six-month secondment from McKinsey & Company in Germany. During his time with us, Christoph has completed due diligence on potential investments on the ground in #Indonesia and supported existing portfolio companies. Thank you for your contribution, Christoph! Christoph, es war uns eine große Freude, dich bei GIF gehabt zu haben. Wir hoffen, dass du mit uns in Kontakt bleibst und wünschen dir für die Zukunft alles Gute! #innovatingtogether #aid #internationaldevelopment #emergingmarkets #socialimpact

Over the last few months, we've been pleased to welcome some new members to our team in Kenya. Juliet Odindo joined us back in May as an Associate in our #Analytics team. More recently, Serah Nderitu has joined as a Managing Director in our #grants team, Dianah Irungu as an #Investment Associate and Amos T. as an Analytics Director. In addition, Investment Director Lily Steele, CFA will be relocating to Nairobi next month. We look forward to working with you in our mission to find and fund #innovations with the potential to transform the lives of people living on less than $5 a day. Thanks to GIF veterans Teresa Bosibori and Eugene Gikonyo for organising the picture! #innovatingtogether #localisation #aid #TeamKenya #FCDO #socialimpact

We recently welcomed colleagues from the Fonds d'Innovation pour le Développement (FID) to our #London office for a learning exchange day. This provided us with an excellent opportunity for FID and GIF to become more familiar with each other's work, share priorities and practices and explore opportunities for #collaboration.   During the day we discussed how and what we invest in, the selection process and #monitoring portfolio level impacts. We also covered funding private companies and #riskcapital investments, our approach to portfolio management and support, and the importance of #localisation. Finally, we reflected on our roles as #thoughtleaders and #influencers, making the case for supporting and scaling #innovation in international development.   It was great to see you FID - and we look forward to working with you in the future! #Innovatingtogether #Aid #FCDO #Scale #socialimpact #internationaldevelopment