News and blogs

Our CEO Alix Zwane was delighted to speak at the Commonwealth Innovation Open Day alongside Commonwealth Secretary-General, Baroness Patricia Scotland. The inaugural event showcased novel initiatives and tools to support member states, including the Commonwealth Innovation Fund. Launched by Alix Zwane and Baroness Scotland at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in 2018, the Commonwealth […]

GIF is excited to announce a $500,000 investment in Drinkwell, a social enterprise aiming to provide access to affordable and clean drinking water for millions of underserved urban customers for the first time. Through Water ATM-enabled systems Drinkwell’s solution has the potential to improve the lives of low-income urban slumdwellers in Bangladesh where there is […]

By Joseph Ssentongo Over half of GIF’s portfolio of innovations (25/40) are based on the African continent totalling $44m worth of grants and risk capital investments. We have partnered with these organisations whilst placing evidence at the core of our model, aligning on vision of success and ensuring there is key additionality to our funds.  […]

By Taniya Bajaj, Malcolm Spence and Madeleine Eastwood  The global learning crisis  The 2018 World Development Report warned of a global learning crisis. More children than ever are enrolling and attending school, but for too many children turning up at school does not translate to meaningful learning. In rural India, for example, enrolment rates exceed […]

By Rakesh Apte For every success story in Silicon Valley, where you will find one of the most supportive ecosystems for startups, there are many failures. The majority of startups in this tech utopia don’t make it to year five, and over 70% don’t make it to year 10. Now, add to that the obstacles […]

Congratulations to GIF investee Simprints, who scooped the World Bank’s Mission Billion Challenge this month for the development of a toolkit that uses audio messages to help people provide informed consent before the collection of their biometric data. The Mission Billion Challenge is aimed at surfacing innovative solutions to tackle digital identity issues for the […]