Crypto For Good Fund II

The objective of the Fund is to drive global financial inclusion and climate resilience through a series of pilots, building an evidence base to prove the scalability of blockchain-enabled solutions in making a positive impact in emerging markets.

Globally, 1.4 billion adults remain unbanked and completely excluded from the financial system. Of this, nearly 60% of those excluded are women. The exclusion of women from the financial system leads to poorer life outcomes for themselves and their families, and constrains the potential of society as a whole.

At the same time, there are 3.3 billion people whose daily lives are at risk and highly vulnerable to climate change. 130 million people will be pushed into poverty by climate change by 2030, and emerging markets are expected to bear 75–80% of climate change costs. Groups within emerging markets are disproportionately impacted such as youth, smallholder farmers, informal merchants, gig workers, displaced populations, and women.

About the fund

Mercy Corps Ventures (MCV) is looking for startups and organizations operating in Africa, South and Southeast Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, the Middle East, Pacific Islands, and Western Balkans, that innovatively apply Web3 and blockchain technology to build solutions for underserved populations.

Priority focus areas include, but are not limited to:

• Access to credit for underbanked users.
• Nature-based solutions for climate resilience.
• Humanitarian aid delivery.
• Transparent supply chains.
• Crypto-enabled wallets for underserved users.

The Fund will provide equity-free grants of up to $100,000 to ten eligible startups. Alongside capital, MCV will also provide mentorship, impact measurement advisory, access to partnership opportunities, knowledge exchange, and brand exposure.

In the first phase of the Fund, launched in 2022, we received nearly 200 applications from 50+ countries around the globe. Winners included Empowa, using NFTs to fuel affordable, climate-smart housing in Mozambique, Atlantis DAO, building a decentralized token network for clean water access in India, and Forest Carbon, building equitable carbon offset projects in Indonesia with Web3.

Whether you’re curious about crypto or Web3-native, we’re excited to hear about your pilot proposal.

Through the Fund, we aim to support solutions that:

• Test innovations that can increase financial inclusion among low-income and/or un/underbanked populations; and
• Develop approaches or business models that can be scaled or replicated in similar markets to build financial inclusion.

The Fund will assess pilots at all stages, for example, we are open to concepts that have launched at a small-scale but require additional funding to reach a larger audience. However, preference will be given to untested concepts that are still in their development phase.

Eligibility criteria

To be eligible to apply, applicants must meet the following criteria:

• Be a small and growing startup or organization leveraging, or looking to leverage, blockchain to deliver financial inclusion and/or climate resilience solutions to low-income and/or un/underbanked users in at least one eligible country.
• Have active users and revenue (users and revenue from any products or services offered by the startup or organization) in at least one eligible country.
• Be an entity registered and operating in the country of pilot implementation (whether domestic or internationally-owned or a joint venture). In cases where responsibility for service delivery lies with a downstream partner, rather than the applicant (for example service delivery by a local government), it may be acceptable for the applicant to be registered in a country other than that of pilot implementation.
• Be fully compliant with relevant business licensing, taxation, employee and other regulations in all applicable countries of grant pilot operation.
• Be registered and have a bank account in the country where they will receive the grant money (if not the same as the pilot implementation country).
• Be an eligible entity and demonstrate that a majority of their income is derived from commercial activities. Early-stage companies who have not reached this threshold will need to demonstrate a reliable path to sustainability via commercial activities that generate revenue to be considered.
• Startups must allocate significant resources to demonstrate commitment and signal the strategic importance of the pilot opportunity.
• Only one startup or organization can apply for funding and become a pilot delivery partner. Applicants are encouraged to have downstream partners to support implementation. In the case of government entities being grant pilot partners, they cannot be a sub-recipient of the grant.

Additional information

If you would like to know more about Mercy Corps Ventures Crypto For Good Fund, find details in the links below.

• Frequently Asked Questions
• Term Sheet
• Webinar Recording & Webinar Slides