Swiss Re Foundation announces Shine Programme (India)

Deadline: 18 May 2025

The Swiss Re Foundation is inviting applications from founders of early-stage social enterprises who can demonstrate a holistic understanding of a specific challenge in one of their focus areas and offer an innovative approach to addressing it.

Shine provides early-stage social entrepreneurs with grant and access to Swiss Re business expertise, leadership and coaching to help them scale their initiatives for impact.

They strongly believe in the power of entrepreneurship to catalyse change and address societal challenges at scale. The Shine programme nurtures social entrepreneurs who offer innovative, market-based solutions to problems related to natural hazards, climate risk and healthcare access.

Shine is a remarkable opportunity for founders of social enterprises not only to realise their vision of a more resilient world, but also to grow professionally and personally.

Benefits

Hands-on support in developing a focused strategy and viable financial and execution plan
Access to diverse experts from Swiss Re businesses and functions
Business mentoring and leadership coaching to accelerate the professional and personal development of the enterprise founder(s)
Financial grant of up to INR 2 000 000 to scale the solution
Connections and visibility in the social entrepreneurial ecosystem

Eligibility Criteria

Focus areas
- Applicants’ impact areas must be aligned with one of the Swiss Re Foundation’s supported topics:
  - Nature based solutions in coastal & urban areas
  - Disaster risk reduction
  - Transformation to Net-Zero (circular economy solutions)
  - Access to Health
  - Healthy Nutrition
- Innovation
  - Applicants must display nuanced understanding of a social challenge in one of the focus areas and an innovative, scalable solution to addressing it.
- Maturity
  - Applicants must be early-stage enterprises that have an established proof of concept for their solution and are looking to accelerate their growth.
- Mission and purpose
  - Applicants must have a strong sense of purpose combined with an impact-focused mindset. They need to also have the willingness to take part in a learning programme that spans four months.