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Summary table of investments

Posted 21st May 2021
Innovation implementerInvestment yearCountry/RegionGIF funding (in $)Investment type Current statusSectorIATI sector codeDescription Investment ObjectivePeople reached directly (by 2021)
Afrimarket2016 Cote d'Ivoire, Senegal, Benin, Togo, Cameroon 3,125,233  Equity Completed Remittance facilitation, promotion and optimisation24050A low-cost, eCommerce cash-to-goods service for sending remittances and locally sourcing food, sanitation, and construction materials in West Africa. Build out distribution operations and acquire new customers.18,000 Customers
Babban Gona 2017 Nigeria 2,978,919  Debt /Grant ImplementationAgricultural development31120Comprehensive agriculture franchise model to sustainably improve the lives of smallholder farmers through the provision of end-to-end farming services. Catalyse capital and fund the company’s expansion from 2017-2021 in order to tackle multiple constraints in smallholder farming with promising increases to farmer net incomes in an extremely poor region of Nigeria.81,940 Farmers
Balloon Ventures 2019 Kenya, Uganda 230,000  Grant ImplementationBusiness development services25030Provides entrepreneurs in global south with intensive, tailored support on management best practices alongside flexible loans, driving growth and creating jobs. To test market viability of a credit plus management support model for SGBs, as well as document and share lessons learnt. Also, to enable Balloon Ventures to meet a target number of investments, expected return on investment and its business plan assumptions. The company’s service offering should additionally contribute to productivity improvements for beneficiary businesses.96 businesses
Behavioural Insights Team (BIT) 2016 Guatemala, Bangladesh, Indonesia, 3,850,000 Grant Implementationother general public services15126Helping governments use behavioural science to (re)design public services to improve their performance and support citizens to make better choices.  Partner with government agencies in multiple countries to design behavioural interventions which contribute to public policy goals, including tax compliance, evaluate them through randomized controlled trials and build government capacity to apply behavioral science to policy problems. More than 11.1 million people
Born Project2015 China, Philippines 224,600  Grant CompletedResearch for prevention and control of NCDs12382Developed low-cost pulse oximeter for newborns with the potential to detect sepsis, pneumonia and congenital heart defects earlier than standard practice Test whether pulse oximetry screening of newborns can save lives at birthNot Applicable
CCT for immunisations 2016 Pakistan 856,215  Grant ImplementationInfectious disease control12250Provides small incentives to parents and vaccinators to encourage uptake and completion rates of child immunisation.  Conduct an experimental study in Karachi, Pakistan, to measure the relative effectiveness of different types of incentive structures (including the optimal amount, progressivity, and certainty of payment) on immunization coverage rates and timeliness. Identify the optimal model of delivering small incentives that has a minimal cost, are logistically simple, and not subject to leakage.11,197 children
Chrysalis (EZ Vidya) 2020 India 1,600,000 Equity ImplementationEarly childhood education11240Activity-based early childhood and primary grade curriculum, roughly half of assessment and teacher training in India’s affordable private schools. Chrysalis takes its activity-based learning program to affordable private schools(APS) in India and improves the classroom learning environment, teacher and management capacity and ultimately learning outcomes for students in the pre-primary and primary grades.140,703 students
CityTaps 2018 Niger, Kenya, Ecuador 500,000  Convertible Debt ImplementationBasic drinking water supply14031Allows residents to prepay for running water in the home with a mobile phone, at any time, and for any amount. Expand operations to multiple water utilities, reduce non-revenue water for utilities and improve quality of service to customer, reliably deliver piped water to end users, particularly those living under PPP$54,200 households
33,000 people
CrimeRadar 2019 South Africa 1,408,359  Grant ImplementationPolice15132A decision-support and crime-forecasting tool by the Igarapé Institute to help police and civilians.Help refine an application with operational insights for low cost for use by police across developing countries resulting in reduction of crime in cities through improved police response and management.Paused due to Covid
Development Media International 2015 Burkina Faso 2,093,265  Grant ImplementationFamily planning13030Provides a mass radio campaign to promote adoption of modern contraception and thus have a cost-effective impact on a variety of outcomes, especially child mortality. Undertake a three-year cluster-randomised controlled trial  to test whether a mass media campaign alone can increase modern contraceptive prevalence15 million women reached by radio
DGMT-SmartStart 2020 South Africa 1,460,000 Grant ImplementationEarly childhood education11240Creates social franchises aimed at scaling quality Early Childhood Education (ECE) provision across South Africa. Build and launch a mobile-enabled management and support tech platform for ECD practitioners In South Africa to test if the light-touch SmartStart model is effective and operationally viable. GIF’s expectation is that the platform will support SmartStart as it scales to monitor and continuously improve the quality of its programme delivery. The platform will be made available to the wider ecosystem as an open source project.78,167 children
Drinkwell 2019 Bangladesh, India 500,000  Debt ImplementationBasic drinking water supply14031A combination of purification tech, filtration and pay-as-you-go cards in an easy-to-operate turnkey solution delivering safe and affordable water. Successful installation and operation of water systems. Systems demonstrate lasting and measurable impact to end users through cost and time savings, improvements to quality of life, and by addressing contamination issues between point of collection and household use thereby leading to improved health outcomes. 229,481 households
918,000 people
Educate! 2015 Uganda 609,674  Grant ImplementationUpper secondary education11322Provides leadership, entrepreneurship, and workforce readiness skills training and mentorship for secondary school students.  improve the income of the poor through skills based secondary education in Africa leading to improved livelihoods, increased business and job creation, improved community participation, and improved employability skills 160,000 students
Educational Initiatives 2017 India 2,307,658  Grant ImplementationPrimary Education11220Delivers Mindspark personalized adaptive learning (PAL) software to students in government schools Deploy the Mindspark programme in at least 40 participating government schools to benefit at least 5,000 children through improving learning outcomes in mathematics and Hindi. Document and disseminate processes, tools and learning to assist in uptake of personalized adaptive learning in other schools in India, produce research papers on effective pedagogy, and create a science of learning library to act as a repository of key pedagogical concepts, common misconceptions, and remedial plans for Maths and Hindi for grades 1-4. 200,000 students
EM3 2017 & 2020 India 8,780,000 Equity ImplementationAgricultural inputs31150A platform for smallholder farmers access to end-to-end farming services including machinery to which they would typically not have access Help company build out the mechanization-as-a-service market through scaling its existing centres and partnerships; build additional farming services lines.110,000+ hours of tractor services delivered
Evidence Action (No Lean Season)2017 Bangladesh, Indonesia 2,461,901  Grant Cancelled Facilitation of orderly, safe, regular and responsible migration and mobility15190Increase food consumption and income of poor rural households facing seasonal hunger by incentivising temporary migration to nearby areas with higher wages and better work opportunities.Scale up the implementation in Bangladesh to disburse at least 30,000 travel subsidies by end-2017, working toward 90,000 subsidies conditional on positive results from a large scale randomized controlled trial and build a viable operating model for delivering the programme in Indonesia. 130,369 travel subsidies provided
Give Directly 2019 Uganda 2,100,000  Grant ImplementationRelief coordination and support services72050Provides unrestricted cash transfers to people living in refugee settlements via a mobile money payments platform. Deliver large, lump sum cash transfers to improve the lives of refugees and host nationals, conduct a randomized control trial to demonstrate success in a refugee context and use the findings to advocate for wider adoption as a potentially more efficient and effective refugee aid model.4,840 households
30,864 people
Ideas42 (Behavioural insights for cash transfers)2017 & 2020 Kenya, Tanzania, Ghana and others 4,622,729 Grant ImplementationSocial Protection16010Behavioural additions to social protection cash transfer programs to improve productive inclusion and human development outcomes for beneficiaries.Enable ideas42 to partner with social protection agencies within governments in sub-Saharan Africa and the World Bank’s Social Protection and Jobs Global Practice to deploy a problem-driven approach to implement behavioural design interventions in social protection cash transfer programmes in at least five countries. Rigorous evaluation will test the impact of behavioral additions on productive inclusion and human development outcomes, and ideas42 will support the capacity of the World Bank and local governments to apply these methods and scale proven approaches. 34,742 recipients
Ideas42 (City Nudges)2018 various 300,000  Grant CompletedDomestic revenue mobilisation15114Performance contracts whereby cities pay for the use of behavioural nudges in areas including energy or water conservation, or tax compliance on the basis of outcomes achieved. Explore ways of shifting the paradigm of grants-based financing of nudges to a more incentive-compatible and administratively simple outcomes-based approaches by advocating for uptake and reaching agreements with at least three government entities to pilot the use of reimbursable pay-for-performance contracts.Not Applicable
IDinsight (Nano MIS)2018 Zambia 230,000  Grant CompletedDecentralisation and support to subnational government15112Producing cheaper, faster and user-friendly information for local officials on issues directly relevant to citizens, such as health, education, or agriculture. Develop a fully functioning Nano Information System in accordance with the local need to improve public service delivery and demonstrate it successfully in a Chiefdom while generating making available evidence and learning to scale the System and enable third-party replication.Approximately 25,000
people
International Care Ministries 2020 Philippines, Uganda 5,400,000 Grant ImplementationSocial Protection16010Leveraging a network of pastors to deliver a "light-touch" version of Graduation (from poverty), called Transform, to last-mile locations. ICM refines and rigorously tests Transform, develops the capacity to scale it effectively, identifies and codifies what works, and successfully partners with independent organisations and governments to replicate the refined Transform model in other contexts. ICM disseminates lessons learned and evidence generated during the grant which helps influence the global discourse on ultra-poor Graduation approaches.1.4 million people
Kamatan 2020 India 2,000,000  Equity ImplementationAgricultural services31191Works with farmer produce organisations (FPOs) to source produce for direct supply to agricultural enterprises, processors, and retailers.  GIFs investment in Kamatan can help build an organized backend marketplace and supply chain for procurement of agriculture produce and bring in best practices in sorting, grading, quality assurance and traceability which are essential ingredients for building further farm infrastructure and investment in value added services.25,000 farmers
Labelled remittances 2017 Philippines 1,700,000  Grant Implementation Remittance facilitation, promotion and optimisation24050Enables migrants to label the remittances that they send home for a specific purpose, such as education or business activities.  Partner with UAE Exchange to design and pilot a remittance product incorporating behavioural nudges. Conduct a randomized evaluation of the Philippines-based remittance product to evaluate both the changes in remittance volumes sent by migrants and corresponding socioeconomic impacts on receiving households. Support the Philippine COVID-19 response by quantifying the role of international migrant remittances in helping households cope with the pandemic’s economic consequences and investigate how these responses are affected by the remittance labelling innovation.4,000+ remittance
recipients
Lively Minds 2016 & 2020 Ghana 4,785,000 Grant ImplementationEarly childhood education11240Equips education services to engage parents in educational play-schemes in government run kindergartens.Support government to integrate the Lively Minds programme with existing Kindergarten services in 1,600 kindergarten schools across 24 districts, and equip government with the capacity to sustain and monitor the programme. Funding will also support education authorities to prepare, broadcast and monitor the interactive Lively Minds Together radio programme in 18 languages. 8,374 mothers trained,
50,398 children
attending
mClinica 2016 Cambodia, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia 3,120,000  Equity/Debt/ Grant ImplementationHealth personnel development12281Provides pharmacists access to information and training, cheaper and faster access to drug distributors, and facilitates patient referrals. Reduce healthcare expenditures and improve health outcomes for target market via greater reach to pharmacists;196,539 pharmacies
Med Biotech Laboratories2017 Uganda 230,000  Grant CompletedModifies traditional home plaster by incorporating insecticide to kill mosquitoes, Test the efficacy and safety of the insecticidal home decoration.1,670 households
Mr. Green Africa 2019 Kenya 1,000,000  Equity/Debt ImplementationWaste management/disposal14050A tech-enabled plastics recycling company offering an end-to-end process for recycling by purchasing plastics from waste pickers at a higher price while advocating for a more ethical supply chain.  Grow volume of plastics processed by opening further trading points, onboarding additional sourcing agents, investing in IT upgrades to run a cashless operation, running additional shifts on existing processing machinery, and investing in new machinery to increase the quality of their recycled plastics and their margins. Successfully scales to reach 134 trading points in Kenya by the end of 2023, collect 800 metric tonnes per year, engage a previously informal supplier network of more than 4,000 full-time sourcing agents, and reach breakeven and then operate profitably.1,600 sourcing agents
myAgro2016 Mali, Senegal 225,000  Grant CompletedAgricultural inputs31150A scratch card system for smallholder farmers to save and finance activities by purchasing farm inputs (seeds, fertiliser, and training) using mobile phones. Test whether myAgro's layaway savings program can achieve cost efficiencies via integration with Village Savings and Loan Associations30,000 farmers
150,000 people
Nesta (Aquaculture Prize Design)2016 India, Bangladesh 315,566  Grant CompletedFishery development31320Design a Challenge Prize to address market failures and accelerate innovation in aquacultureDesign a launch-ready Challenge Prize in Aquaculture for Global Development which would address market failures in aquaculture in India and BangladeshNot Applicable
No Means No Worldwide 2018 Uganda, South Africa 2,105,399  Grant ImplementationEnding violence against women and girls15180Provides rape prevention training curriculum called No Means No, aimed at boys and girls aged 10-20 to teach mental, verbal, and physical self-defence skills. By the end of the grant period, No Means No Worldwide (NMNW) has successfully executed strategic scaling initiatives including expanding to new geographies and launching new proactive partnerships; developing the requisite organisational capacity, structure and systems to support growth and sustainability; applying lessons learned to improve its partnership model and the No Means No system; and developing a stakeholder network to share evidence and best practices. 113,223 adolescents
One Acre Fund 2016 Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Malawi, Uganda 15,000,000  Grant ImplementationAgricultural development31120Provides smallholder farmers a package of credit, farming inputs, training, and market linkages. Drive improvements to the agricultural systems of entire countries by (a) conducting systematic and rigorous investigation to discover "what works" in each country, (b) create initial scale through core farmers who serve as a "market anchor," and then (c) drive rest-of-system adoption for critical farm technologies and practices. 2 million farmers
Online Pajak 2018 Indonesia 1,750,000  Equity ImplementationTax Collection15116A software platform that provides free tax compliance and filing, technology for SMEs to encourage them to formalise their businesses. Increase tax compliance for businesses, particularly SMEs, in Indonesia and thus increasing tax revenues for the government of Indonesia; provide additional value-added services to SME/business customers. 1 million registered
clients
PagaTech 2018 Nigeria 6,000,000  Equity ImplementationFormal sector financial intermediaries24030A mobile payment company that delivers person to person money transfers, transfers to bank accounts, bill payments, airtime purchases, remittances and other digital financial services. Increase the country-wide footprint of Paga agents in Nigeria to promote financial inclusion in Nigeria and drive usage of a mobile wallet and other digital financial services. Using a market leader position to positively influence system wide change while enabling other promising technologies.18.65 million unique
users
PATH 2020 Nepal, Indonesia, Malawi, Pakistan 868,000 Grant ImplementationEnvironmental research41082A portfolio of projects for the environmental surveillance of COVID-19 infection in low- and middle-income countries.This environmental surveillance (of sewage systems and impacted surface waters) project will include data collection from five field deployments in Africa and the Indo Pacific and a dedicated center for curation and pooling of the data to support national and global COVID-19 monitoring and management plans.Not Applicable
PayGo Energy 2016 Kenya 616,705  Equity/Debt ImplementationRetail gas distribution23640Provides pay as you go smart meters LPG cylinders, coupled with a distribution model adjusted to the needs of low-income households Expansion into priority markets in Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia; hardware value engineering; global partnerships and meter deployment.Commercially
sensitive
PoaPower2015 Kenya 238,053  Equity CompletedSolar energy for isolated grids and standalone systems23231Making off-grid, affordable clean energy technology affordable for even the lowest-income households using a ‘pay-as-you-go energy as a utility’ model.  Validate technical and functional capability of the product; test distribution channels and demonstrate uptake by households.100 households
Reducing Anemia2017 India 1,303,611  Grant FinishingBasic nutrition12240Distributes fortified rice via the already existing Public Distribution System that delivers free rice to all households. Lab tests results were not approved. This project aimed to address anemia and micro-nutrient deficiencies in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The intervention involved replacing conventional rice provided free of charge through the PDS with fortified rice made from rice flour enriched with iron, zinc, vitamin A, folic acid, and B vitamins blended with parboiled rice.Paused due to Covid
SafeBoda2016 Uganda 230,000  Debt CompletedTransport policy and administrative management21010A ride-hailing app, which provides boda (motorbike) drivers a reflector jacket, two helmets, and road safety training. Demonstrate that Safe Boda rides are safer than normal motorbike taxis and use results to sharpen the path to scale2 million riders
per month
360 injuries and
deaths averted
Segovia2015 Kenya, Uganda, Pakistan 749,999  Equity Implementation Remittance facilitation, promotion and optimisation24050Provides software that improves the efficiency of cross-border payments, making aid programmes and remittances faster, cheaper and more secure.  Support the pathway to scale by growing its client base and lowering remittance costs through mobile payment technology310,000 recipients
Simpa2016 India 2,300,000  Equity CompletedSolar energy for isolated grids and standalone systems23231Installs solar electric systems in homes or business and allows customers to purchase "energy days" using prepaid or pay-as-you-go mobile payments. Grow customer base, including lower income customers 72,000 households
374,000 people
Simprints 2016 & 2020 Bangladesh, Nepal, Uganda, Kenya, Zambia 2790192Grant Implementationother general public services15126Delivers mobile biometric hardware and software to address the challenges faced by the 2 billion people lacking formal identity Tailor investment instruments to support Simprints’ expansion. Through this investment GIF also aims to demonstrate a case for non-profit organisations to access capital from conventional lenders.380,000 users
SparkMeter 2016 Africa, South Asia, Latin America 657,688  Equity/Debt ImplementationEnergy conservation and demand-side efficiency23183Provides smart metering technology to central grid utilities and micro-grids for real-time monitoring and pay-as-you-go electricity and outage preventionDeliver reliable electricity for end-users, particularly low income consumers, improve utility cost-recovery, demonstrate demand for the product by central grid utilities.190,000 meters
760,000 people
Stanford/Planet Remote Sensing for Smallholders 2018 Kenya, Mali, Uganda, Tanzania, Malawi, India 461,846  Grant ImplementationAgricultural land resources31130Use satellite images to measure farm productivity for very small plots and in near-real time. The innovation is still in development phase.   Demonstrate the technical and financial feasibility of a scalable system to improve smallholder African agriculture through the affordable provision of timely, comprehensive, high-resolution yield projections and estimates to farmers, extension agents, development agencies, and governments. Develop open-source local-level maize yield estimates for farmers using satellite imagery. Assess the potential applicability of alternative smallholder yield estimation methods. Not Applicable
StrongMinds 2019 Uganda, Zambia 1,600,000  Grant ImplementationPromotion of mental health and well-being12340Addresses depression among low-income African women by delivering facilitator and peer-led 12-week courses of Group Interpersonal Therapy Refine StrongMind’s low-intensity, replicable and scalable IPT-G (interpersonal group therapy) model, and continue testing its effectiveness in healing depression and reducing depression rates and improving well-being metrics by conducting two pilots with iNGOs and/or MoH in Uganda and Zambia with different levels of engagement. Create the toolkits for replication of the IPT-G model and build a strong pipeline for partnerships with iNGOs and MoH in Uganda and Zambia. Capture learnings related to each model to determine the model for scale, and define a clear path to scale with one or more partners to scale to 20,000 or more women by 2023.100,000 patients
TAG Africa2017 Africa 178,015  Grant CompletedBusiness development services25030Provides market linkage innovation in Africa for water utilities, technology providers, and regulators to convene. Pilot the TAG model in Africa, including financing for an initial scoping work to identify relevant water technology providers and water utility customers, to test the TAG model within the African context. Not Applicable
Talent Beyond Boundaries 2017 Jordan, Lebanon, Canada, Australia 229,332  Grant Completed Facilitation of orderly, safe, regular and responsible migration and mobility15190Matching highly skilled refugees with job vacancies in countries with skills shortages and securing access to visa regimes to enable them to migrate to take up employmentCatalyze labor mobility and economic self-sufficiency solutions for refugees which are viable, market-driven, and cost-effective through securing skilled employment for 20 target beneficiaries from Jordan and/or Lebanon, generating process maps and documentation on how to implement and scale labor mobility model for refugees, and generating and disseminating evidence on the approach. 38,862 refugees
Valid Nutrition2015 Malawi 169,408  Grant CompletedBasic nutrition12240Provides ready to use, fortified therapeutic foods to combat malnutritionConduct a trial to test efficacy of an RUTF (ready to use therapeutic food) product853 children
WhereIsMyTransport 2017 Africa, S. Asia, SE Asia, Latin America  1,140,000  Equity ImplementationPublic transport services21012A transport technology company focusing on mapping informal transport routes that allow for the integration of formal and informal transit data. Digitise complete public transport network information, which will improve informal transport journey planning and enable local governments to improve efficient planning of mass transit systems; participate in the growth of the company as they expand to new markets and de-risk investment for others by providing patient capital.450,000 app
downloads
Young1ove2016 Botswana 362,426  Grant CancelledSTD control including HIV/AIDS13040Empowers young women to reduce their risks of HIV infection and unintended pregnancies by offering dynamic awareness classes in schools.  To test, through a randomized controlled trial, a creative peer education approach to empower girls in secondary school to reduce their risk of HIV/AIDs and unintended pregnancies 50,000 young adults
Taaron Ki Toli (Breakthrough)2020India890,000Grant ImplementationTBCA gender equality curriculum in government schools designed to shift discrimination against women and girls by empowering adolescents.TBC550,760 adolescents
J-PAL Health2020India701,000GrantImplementationHealthJ-PAL South Asia’s IDEA innovation demonstrates data-use value proposition through the health insurance program ‘use-case’ across three states; through embedded capacity building, data diagnostics, analysis andclose and deliberate government consultations to catalyse a process of institutionalising data use in governments.To test and refine this partnership approach for data-use over a two year project and will also learn how to institutionalise effective data-use practices in governments. These lessons will help J-PAL develop its approach and implementation model and be relevant for use in other sectors and geographies.Not Applicable
Viamo2021Various1,500,000EquityImplementationCommunicationsSupporting disconnected stakeholders to access
information, education and vital services through mobile
technology in local languages.
29.5 million
participants
Buildher2021Kenya230,000GrantImplementationGenderHelping disadvantaged young women secure skilled
employment in the traditionally male-dominated
construction sector
290 enrolled in training
MTV Staying Alive
Foundation
2021Kenya, Nigeria675,000GrantImplementationGenderMedia campaigns that aim to address gender-based
violence and wider gender issues.
Not applicable
Isizwe2021South Africa460,000Convertible
debt
ImplementationConnectivityInternet service provider that offers online access to lowincome communities in South Africa at a rate much lower
than current standard.
32,000 users
HealthConnect2021South Africa500,000GrantImplementationHealthSuite of digital health tools that use a chatbot platform to
communicate COVID-19 information.
8.4 million users
Impact(Ed) International2022Kenya2,000,000GrantImplementationImpact(Ed) International’s flagship ‘edu-tainment’ series, My Better World, follows six African teens as they navigate the complex challenges of school, family, and friendship. Episode themes include early marriage, female genital mutilation, and sexual harassment while addressing skills and attitudes such as communication, negotiation, and resilience.