GSMA Innovation Fund for Climate Resilience and Adaptation

On November 9, during the Science and Innovation day at COP26, the GSMA announced the launch of the GSMA Innovation Fund for Climate Resilience and Adaptation. This new Fund will help accelerate the testing, adoption and scalability of digital innovations that enable the world’s most vulnerable populations to adapt, anticipate and absorb the negative impacts of climate change.

The GSMA is looking for start-ups, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and social enterprises in Africa, Asia-Pacific, the Caribbean, Latin America and Eastern Europe that leverage digital technology, particularly mobile, to deliver climate resilience and adaptation solutions to and with low-income and vulnerable populations.

Program Benefits

Successful projects will receive an equity-free grant of between £100,000 and £250,000 to scale their innovation over a 15 to 18 month period. In addition to the financial compensation, grantees will receive further support, including but not limited to:

• Learning exchange opportunities with other grantees and GSMA networks;
• Facilitation of relationships with mobile operators and public sector organizations; and
• Profiling opportunities through GSMA publications, social media and industry leading MWC events.

Eligibility Criteria

• Be a small and growing enterprise or start-up leveraging digital technology, especially mobile, to deliver climate resilience and adaptation solutions to low-income and vulnerable populations in countries that are eligible to receive official development assistance.
• Be an entity registered and operating in the country of project implementation (whether domestic or foreign-owned or a joint venture).
• Be fully compliant with relevant business licensing, taxation, employee and other regulations in all applicable countries of grant project operation.
• Be registered and have a bank account in the country where they will receive the grant money.
• Be an eligible entity and demonstrate that a majority of their income is derived from commercial activities.
• Commit to providing 25% to 50% matching funding depending on the total grant amount requested.

Please read the full Eligibility Criteria the T&C PDF.

If you would like to know more about the GSMA Innovation Fund for Climate Resilience and Adaptation, find more details here.