About us

Who we are

Improving lives through social innovation

The Global Innovation Fund is a non-profit, impact-first investment fund headquartered in London with offices in Washington, D.C. and Nairobi. We invest in the development, rigorous testing, and scaling up of new products, services, business process, or policy reforms that are more cost-effective than current practice and targeted at improving the lives of the world's poorest people.

Through our grants and risk capital, we support these breakthrough solutions from for-profit firms, non-profit organisations, researchers, and government agencies to maximise their impact and catalyse meaningful change. Because the best ideas for solving some of the world's most critical development problems can come from anyone, anywhere, we provide an open window to receive innovative ideas and assess whether they are right for GIF investment.

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Our People

Our team of innovators

Our teams’ focus is on solving any major development problems in low- or lower-middle income countries. We seek solutions that can scale up commercially, through the public/philanthropic sector, or through a combination of both in order to achieve widespread adoption.

Board Members

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Team Members

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Investment

How we work

Through grants, loans (including convertible debt) and equity investments ranging from $50,000 to $15 million, we back innovations with the potential for social impact at a large scale, whether they are new technologies, business models, policy practices, technologies or behavioural insights.

We support innovators at all stages of their life cycle, from start-up and pilot-testing through to larger scale implementation. The innovations we fund can be located in any developing country and can focus on any sector relevant to international development, provided they improve the lives of those living on less than $5 a day.

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Our Supporters

Innovate.
Impact. Change.

We are currently supported by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, the United States Agency for International Development, the Omidyar Network, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, the Department for Foreign Affairs and Trade in Australia, the Department of Science and Technology in South Africa, Global Affairs Canada, Sint Antonius Stichting, Dioraphte, Anglo American, and Unilever.

Global Innovation Fund is a registered charity (number 1171353) and company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales (number 09223487). Registered office: Global Innovation Fund, 8 Devonshire Square, London, EC2M 4PL.

GIF takes a zero-tolerance approach to bribery and corruption in our activities or in any programs or projects that we support. So-called “facilitation payments” are also prohibited by our Anti-Corruption and Integrity Policy.