11 Grants for Impact Entrepreneurs and Investors
Inspired by Liza Minelli
Hello Impact Nation,
“Money makes the world go round” (belated with the voice of Liza Minelli).
We might dislike this quote, but deep inside, we know it’s true.
So why not use the money for good?
This week’s newsletter is all about grants you can get for doing good.
Enjoy!
This Week We Are Diving Into:
1. 11 Grants for Impact Entrepreneurs and Investors
2. Good Gossip
3. News & Opportunities
4. Coming Soon: Interview with Stefano Tresca
Elisa
The Impact Lady
11 Grants for Impact Entrepreneurs and Investors
$20,000 for aspiring entrepreneurs that can help alleviate extreme poverty.
Web:
https://d-prize.org
From the organization:
The D-Prize expands access to poverty alleviation interventions in the developing world. They believe that many solutions to poverty already exist, the challenge is distributing them to people who need them the most. The programme is designed to create ‘distribution entrepreneurs’ or social entrepreneurs who start new ventures that distribute proven life-enhancing technologies to millions of people living in extreme poverty. They aim to significantly increase access to life-enhancing technologies in the developing world, encourage young entrepreneurs to focus their talent on the developing world and encourage a global dialogue on the importance of leveraging distribution solutions for development. The award is in the amount of up to 20,000 USD.
Ethereum Ecosystem Support Program
Small grant: $30,000 - Project grant: no hard limit on the size of the request
Web: https://esp.ethereum.foundation/
From the organization:
We award dozens of grants each quarter, across a variety of categories. We support open source projects that strengthen Ethereum's foundations, with a particular focus on builder tools, infrastructure, research, community resources and other public goods. Funding is generally directed toward supporting builders rather than end-users. Our grantees come from all over the world and represent many different backgrounds, disciplines and levels of experience. We have supported individuals and teams of all kinds - companies, DAOs, nonprofits, institutions, academics, developers, educators, community organizers and more. Learn more and see a list of recent grantees. We aim to deploy resources, both financial and non-financial, where they will have the biggest impact. We try to keep our processes flexible and evolving in order to be open to new ideas and support builders of all kinds. Grants are awarded through a formal application and evaluation process, while our office hours are an opportunity to explore a broad range of support through an informal conversation with a member of the ESP team, such as project feedback, advice, and help to navigate the ecosystem or guidance on submitting a grant application.
First Solar Corporate Charitable Fund
Funding is between $10,000 to $15,000
Web: https://www.coordinationsud.org/financement/first-solar-corporate-charitable-fund/
From the organization:
This fund is designed to improve the quality of life in communities around the world with an emphasis on First Solar’s corporate values. These values include a focus on “green” education initiatives, access to clean energy and water in underserved areas and furthering the development of innovative and sustainable technologies. Priority is given to organizations that make a significant impact in communities and the fund seeks to support projects and services through the donation of solar modules and systems. Applicants may also request grant funds to support their project and funding is between 10,000 and 15,000 USD.
Web: https://projets.fondation-engie.com/
From the organization:
Foundation ENGIE finances projects carried out by associations that correspond to their own interests. These interests include helping children and young people to join society, increasing access to energy for sustainable development, and emergency aid. The ENGIE Foundation believes that we need to be optimistic and work together to find solutions for the future in a world facing more challenges, including global warming, migration, access to energy and tackling poverty. For 25 years, they have been mobilising energies to help the most vulnerable, with a primary focus on children and young people in need, by supporting projects that promote inclusion through culture, education, health and sport. They also aim to support projects led by women which promote the social inclusion of children and access to energy for all.
Web: https://globalinnovation.fund/
From the organization:
GIF is a unique hybrid investment fund that supports the piloting, rigorous testing, and scaling of innovations targeted at improving the lives of the poorest people in developing countries. Their investments support innovations that collectively open up opportunities and improve the lives of millions of people across the world. They believe that the best ideas for solving some of the world’s most critical problems can come from anyone, anywhere and they fund innovations focused on any developing country or sector relevant to international development. They support innovators at all stages of development through grants, loans and equity investments. Innovations with the potential for social impact on a large scale, in developing countries, are supported by GIF.
GSMA- Mobile for Humanitarian Innovation Fund
Grants up to £300,000
Web: https://www.gsma.com/mobilefordevelopment/mobile-for-humanitarian-innovation/innovation-fund/
From the organization:
The GSMA represents the interests of mobile operators worldwide, uniting more than 750 operators with over 350 companies in the broader mobile ecosystem. The Mobile for Humanitarian Innovation Fund aims to promote innovation in the use of mobile technology to address humanitarian challenges. They catalyse ideas to improve or transform institutional systems, and enable solutions to empower, assist or protect individuals and communities affected by complex emergencies and forced displacement. The fund is interested in projects that can demonstrate long-term sustainability and grants up to £300,000.
Grant of up to $30,000
Web: http://www.yesfintech.com/yesscale/agri-tech/
From the organization:
YES SCALE has built on its model of collaborative innovations with start-ups and technology leaders to create a platform accelerator which scales up innovations through technology, mentorship, funding and commercial support for start-ups in key impact sectors. The AgriTech programme brings together the best multi-stakeholder partners to create opportunities for catalysing agricultural innovations. The project has 3 application categories: food tech, farm tech and supply chain tech and selected start-ups will receive a grant of up to 30,000 USD as well as mentoring and project support.
MAN Truck & Bus- Impact Accelerator
Web: http://impact.man.eu/
From the organization:
The MAN Impact Accelerator was designed to scale up social ventures, in transport and logistics, with a considerable impact on society. Entrepreneurs will receive access to more than 300 mentors which will inspire them and allow them to learn from leaders in the community. They bring entrepreneurs from Europe, South Africa and India together to tackle social and environmental challenges through innovative solutions in the transport and logistics space. MAN Truck & Bus is one of Europe’s leading manufacturers of commercial vehicles and is intensely dedicated to purposeful innovation within the transport and logistics sector.
Roddenberry Foundation – The Catalyst Fund
Grants between $2,500 and $15,000
Web: https://roddenberryfoundation.org/our-work/the-catalyst-fund/
From the organization:
The Roddenberry Foundation was created by Gene Roddenberry’s son as a way of building on his father’s legacy and philosophy of inclusion, diversity, and respect for life to drive social change and meaningfully improve the lives of people around the world. The Catalyst Fund is a small grants program focused on early-stage, unconventional ideas that have the potential for disruptive change and that address urgent challenges. The fund grants between 2500-15,000 USD and is not limited to any one issue as they search across many different issues to identify opportunities where innovation is needed. The fund accepts applications on a continuous basis with no deadlines and there is no limit to the number of projects that are supported each year.
Web: https://www.seed.uno/support/replicator.html
From the organization:
SEED is a global partnership for action on sustainable development and green economy. They support social enterprises that deliver social, environmental and economic returns in developing countries or countries with emerging economies. The SEED Replicator invests in successful eco-inclusive business models that provide proven solutions to sustainability challenges across various locations. The programme supports the uptake and adaption of proven business models to different markets in order to multiply positive, sustainable impact. Targeting originators, the SEED Replicator Programme supports the identification of replicable features of business models and uses a matchmaking process to find potential replication partners. This then plants a seed of motivation in the entrepreneurs who are inspired to adapt proven business models to local context.
Techstars- Global Accelerator Programme for Entrepreneurs
Web: https://www.techstars.com/startup-accelerator-benefits/
From the organization:
Teachstars believe in helping start-ups and entrepreneurs through mentorship. They create an environment that is conducive to helping start-ups by surrounding them with people who will mentor and inspire them. From there, they help to determine a fundraising strategy and prepare entrepreneurs to meet investors as well as learn how to communicate their vision.
Web: https://web3.foundation/grants/
From the organization:
Our grants program's aim is to steward the Web 3.0 ecosystem and carefully manage Web3 Foundation resources. We provide grants that we believe will return the highest impact on the Web 3.0 ecosystem over the long term. Web3 Foundation awards grants for specific projects and pieces of development work. Development projects funded through our grants program are broad in scope and include low-level infrastructure development such as alternative client implementations; ecosystem components such as wallets; and software designed to enable direct use cases such as identity and supply-chain modules.
Good Gossip
Congrats to …
Sam Tripuraneni ↪ has been appointed Head of Sustainable Outcomes at Aviva Investors, a global asset manager.
Myron Stadnyk ↪ has been appointed to the Board of Directors at Vermilion Energy Inc., an international energy producer.
Arguiró Elefteriu ↪ has been appointed Chief Sustainability Officer at the Libra Group, a privately-owned international business group.
Bryan Junus ↪ has been appointed Chief Analyst at the Corporate Citizenship Project, a company that provides objective guidance on governance matters at publicly traded companies and larger private enterprises.
Galley ↪ raised $14.2M in Series A funding to fuel the food data revolution. Lead investors: Astanor Ventures. Other investors: Zetta Venture Partners
Salford Valve Company Ltd (Salvalco) ↪ raised £2.5M in funding to expand manufacturing capacity at Salvalco's plant in Thailand. Lead investors: Green Angel Syndicate, Beiersdorf, Foresight Williams Technology, AWI Ltd, Fin.Essa and Growthdeck Ltd.
Nebu~Flow ↪ raised £1.7 in a funding round to progress its product development and commercialisation strategy. Lead investors: Foresight Williams Technology and Foresight Group. Other investors: Science Creates Ventures, Ascension Life Fund and SIS Ventures
Novoloop ↪ raised $10M in Series A funding to create a round economy by transforming low-benefit plastic waste into high-high quality chemicals and materials. Lead investors: Hanwha Remedies and Taizo Son’s Mistletoe.
Rimac Group ↪ raised $537M in funding to build some of the most coveted electric cars in the world. Lead investors: SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and Goldman Sachs Asset Management
Upway ↪ raised $25M in Series A round to sell more refurbished electric bikes. Lead investors: Exor Seeds, Origins and Sequoia Capital. Other investors: Global Founders Capital, Henri Moissinac, co-founder and CEO of micro-mobility startup Dott.
Talk360 ↪ raised $4 in a seed funding round to build a single payment platform for Africa. Lead investor: HAVAÍC. Other investors: Gaston Aussems (ex-Mollie), Robert Kraal (ex-Adyen), Gabriel de Montessuss (President WorldPay International) and Marnix van der Ploeg (ex-Booking.com and EQT).
MedTechConnect ↪ raised $95K in T-Mobile’s Changemaker Challenge to help senior citizens walk through the digital processes of vaccination and other healthcare appointments.
News & Opportunities
U.S. car manufacturers might go all-in against Tesla (and that’s good news for Electric Vehicles and GreenTech)
SEC might impose ESG Funds to invest 80% of their assets in a pre-compiled list of “Good Companies”. Aaron Brown at Bloomberg strongly disagrees.
G7 commit to “predominantly” decarbonise electricity by 2035. That it’s also a nice way of saying “We don’t know when we’ll decarbonise electricity production”
Google and French electricity producer ENGIE team up to boost the use of A.I. for Wind Energy. The collaboration should create benefits for wind power producers.
Volvo CE releases the first fossil-free steel construction machine. The 66-tons / 151,898 lbs Volvo A30G model goes (kind of) green.
$200,000 grant for Web 3.0 and Green Finance startups. The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) launches the 2022 Global FinTech Hackcelerator on Web 3.0 and Green Finance.
🚀 COMING SOON
Crypto-Funds & NFTs For Financial Inclusion - With Stefano Tresca, Founder of Cryptoric
Video interview available from Thursday - Stay tuned
It should not be necessary to add any disclaimer but … Let’s say it anyway! This is not financial or tax advice. This newsletter is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. DYOR - Do Your Own Research!