Formation | 2014 |
---|---|
Type | Non-profit |
Registration no. | 1171353 |
Purpose | Prevention/ Relief of Poverty Overseas Aid Economic/community development/employment |
Headquarters | London, United Kingdom |
CEO (Acting) | Joseph Ssentongo |
Website | https://www.globalinnovation.fund/ |
The Global Innovation Fund (GIF) is a non-profit investment fund. It invests in the development, testing, and scaling of social innovations with the potential to have a measurable impact on the lives of those living on less than $5 per day, such as new products, services, business processes, and policy reforms. [1] It is headquartered in London [2] [3] with offices in Washington, D.C., Nairobi and Singapore. [4]
GIF was launched as an independent nonprofit [5] in 2014 with a $200 million commitment from the UK's Department for International Development, [6] the U.S. Agency for International Development, [7] Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, [8] the Swedish International Development Agency, [9] as well as The Omidyar Network. [10] [11] [12]
GIF was founded "with the goal of creating an entity separate from government bureaucracy that could look at what different financing models can do for development". [13] Its founding aim was to "pool capital to spur creative, pioneering interventions to tackle global development challenges". [14] Alix Peterson Zwane was named as GIF's first CEO in 2015. [15]
Former UK Prime Minister David Cameron announced the launch of GIF [16] following the revision of the UK's foreign aid agenda, which pledged to uphold the UK government's commitment to spend 0.7% of Gross National Income (GNI) on Official Development Assistance and “a step-change in the effectiveness of the UK’s approach to aid”. [17]
In 2024, GIF launched a "spinoff" subsidiary, GIF Growth, designed to help early growth-stage companies across the developing world to scale. [18]
In 2019, GIF announced a new sub-fund focused on gender equality in partnership with Global Affairs Canada. [19] The sub fund invests in “innovations that increase the agency of women and girls. Innovations in the fund work towards greater participation by women in decision making, prevention of violence against women and girls, and greater control over assets”. [20]
At the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland, GIF launched its Innovating for Climate Resilience fund, in partnership with the Adaptation Research Alliance and the Global Resilience Partnership and with seed funding from the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office. [21]
This sub fund “invests, through grant, equity and debt instruments, in innovations with the potential to scale and support the world’s poorest to build resilience and adaptation”. [22] In 2022, GIF announced the first innovations to receive investment from the Innovating for Climate Resilience fund: [23] Agritask, a decision-support platform for agricultural operations which received investment of $3 million; [24] and PLACE, a non-profit hyperlocal mapping organisation, which received a $460,000 grant. [25]
In 2024, GIF launched a “spinoff” subsidiary, GIF Growth, designed to help early growth-stage companies across the developing world to scale. [26] The vehicle targets high-impact development projects in emerging markets, where access to funding and capital is often scarce, and aims to provide them with "long-term patient capital". [27]
GIF invested in the Series B funding round of Kenyan plastic recycling startup Mr Green Africa. [28] [29]
GIF invested in the Series A $7.5m funding round of WhereIsMyTransport, a London-based provider of data and technology solutions to improve public transport. [30]
GIF invested in the $25m Series B funding round of OnlinePajak, a web-based tax application that allows taxpayers to perform calculations, payments, and tax reporting in a single platform. [31]
GIF led in the Series B funding round of Nigerian mobile payments company Paga, which works to allow users to send, receive and pay bills using mobile platforms. [32] GIF invested in the $6.3m Series A funding round of mClinica, a Singapore-based startup who provide healthcare data in Southeast Asia. [33]
GIF's aim is to support evidence-backed interventions impacting people living on less than $5 per day. [34] GIF supports "new and innovative service delivery or management models, behavior-change tools, policies, processes and products, as well as innovative technologies" [35] through investments in the range of $50,000 to $15 million. [36] GIF uses a tiered financing approach to support the scaling of innovations, [37] with funds being allocated depending on the stage of development.
GIF uses a methodology called Practical Impact. [39] This helps GIF to “forecast the impact of prospective investments and use this information to guide investment decisions”. [40]
In June 2022 GIF announced the establishment of its Singapore office, stepping-up its commitment to backing Indo-Pacific innovators. [41]
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) is the ministry of foreign affairs and a ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom.
The U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA) is an agency in the United States Department of Commerce that provides grants and technical assistance to economically distressed communities in order to generate new employment, help retain existing jobs and stimulate industrial and commercial growth through a variety of investment programs. EDA works with boards and communities across the country on economic development strategies.
Omidyar Network is a self-styled "philanthropic investment firm," composed of a foundation and an impact investment firm. Established in 2004 by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and his wife Pam, Omidyar Network has committed over US$1.5 billion to nonprofit organizations and for-profit companies across multiple investment areas. According to the OECD, Omidyar Network's financing for 2019 development increased by 10% to US$58.9 million.
Islamic Relief Worldwide describes itself as "a faith-inspired humanitarian and development agency which is working to support and empower the world's most vulnerable people".
Judith Rodin is an American research psychologist, executive, university president, and global thought-leader. She served as the 12th president of the Rockefeller Foundation from 2005 to 2017. From 1994 to 2004, Rodin served as the 7th president of the University of Pennsylvania, and the first permanent female president of an Ivy League university. She is known for her significant contributions to the fields of behavioral medicine and health psychology, higher education, and philanthropy, as well as championing the concepts of impact investing and resilience.
Legatum Limited, also known as Legatum, is a private investment firm, headquartered in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Legatum is a partnership that uses its own funds to invest globally. The firm also invests in activities to promote entrepreneurship and free enterprise as well as anti-slavery, health and education initiatives.
The Children's Investment Fund Foundation (UK) (CIFF) is an independent philanthropic organisation with offices in Addis Ababa, Beijing, London, Nairobi and New Delhi. It is a registered charity in England and Wales and in 2021 disbursed $468 million and committed $772 million in charitable investments. With assets of GBP £5.2 billion (USD $6.6 billion), it is the 5th largest global development philanthropy in the world based on annual disbursements. According to OECD published data, it is the world's second largest private funder of reproductive health and environmental protection globally and the largest philanthropy that focuses specifically on improving children's lives. In 2021, CIFF pledged $500 million towards gender equality over five years as part of the generation equality forum.
Devex is a social enterprise and media platform for the global development community. It aims to connect with and inform development, health, humanitarian, and sustainability professionals through news, business intelligence, funding and career opportunities related to international development. As an independent news organization, Devex employs more than 100 staff members in different locations, including Washington, D.C., where the organization is headquartered. It also maintains offices in Barcelona and Manila.
The Stop TB Partnership was established in 2001 to eliminate tuberculosis as a public health problem. Its 2000 partner organizations include international, nongovernmental and governmental organizations and patient groups. The secretariat is based in Geneva, Switzerland, and, since 2015, has been administered by UNOPS. Previously it was hosted by the World Health Organization.
The Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation was an office new to the Obama Administration, created within the White House, to catalyze new and innovative ways of encouraging government to do business differently. Its first director was the economist Sonal Shah. The final director was David Wilkinson.
Climate finance is an umbrella term for financial resources such as loans, grants, or domestic budget allocations for climate change mitigation, adaptation or resiliency. Finance can come from private and public sources. It can be channeled by various intermediaries such as multilateral development banks or other development agencies. Those agencies are particularly important for the transfer of public resources from developed to developing countries in light of UN Climate Convention obligations that developed countries have.
OurCrowd is an online global venture investing platform that empowers institutions and individual accredited investors to invest and engage in emerging technology companies at an early stage while still privately held. Based in Jerusalem, the company launched in February 2013, and has since opened overseas branches in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Spain, Singapore, Brazil, and the UAE.
LeapFrog Investments is a South African-Australian private equity firm that invests in high-growth financial services, healthcare and climate solutions companies in emerging markets in Africa and Asia.
Grand Challenges Canada (GCC) is a Canadian nonprofit organization that employs a Grand Challenges model with the aim to fund solutions for health and economic problems in low-and middle-income countries and Canada.
The Nigerian Capital Development Fund (NCDF) is an organization dedicated to impact investing and promoting economic development in Nigeria. Established with the aim of fostering a resilient entrepreneurial ecosystem, NCDF provides essential support, capital, and resources to entrepreneurs, start-ups, and early-stage businesses. The organization's efforts are focused on facilitating job creation, product development, market expansion, and overall economic growth within the country.
Global Goals Week is a shared commitment between a coalition of over 160 partners across all industries, which mobilizes annually in September to bring together communities, demand urgency, and supercharge solutions for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It was founded in 2016 by the United Nations Foundation, Project Everyone, and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). It is timed to coincide with the UN General Assembly "High-Level Week" in New York. The week includes events, summits, conferences, forums, workshops, pledges, and other activations in New York, around the world, and online. It usually runs alongside Climate Week NYC, the annual conference of Goalkeepers, Bloomberg Global Business Forum and many other high-level events.
Ben Ramalingam is a British researcher, strategist, innovator and author, currently Director of Strategy at British Red Cross, senior research associate at the Overseas Development Institute Politics and Governance programme and advisor to the OECD Development Assistance Committee on innovation investments for development, humanitarian and human rights issues.
Climate Action Africa commonly referred to as CMA is a climate resilience organization located at GRA Ikeja, Lagos. It was founded on July 14, 2021, by Grace Oluchi Mbah and Chukwuemeka Fred Agbata. It provides a platform for climate consciousness with data resources to support policies on evidence-based climate issues in Africa. In April 2024, Climate Action Africa formerly known as CMA announced its change of acronym to CAA. This was announced in a climate workshop in Awka, Anambra State, Nigeria.
Racquel Moses is a Global Ambassador for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Chief Executive Officer for the Caribbean Climate-Smart Accelerator (CCSA). Moses has represented the region at COP26-28, presenting a climate scorecard for rating the status and progress of countries at COP26 and a climate smart map for the Caribbean region at COP28.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link){{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link){{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link){{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link){{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)