Apply for Investment Innovation Fund (Round Two)

These initiatives are anticipated to enhance capital deployment in waste and circularity businesses.

The proposed projects will pilot, test, or expand scalable solutions to support Waste and Circularity in Small and Growing Businesses (SGBs) in India, generating valuable insights for the wider SGB sector.

Problem Statement

• As identified through ANDE’s research and “Action Labs” in Phase 1 of the Access to Green Finance project, there is significant green entrepreneurial activity in place in India, but there is one key sector with both significant opportunity for greater investment and a limited number of existing actors taking up those challenges: Waste Management and Circular Economy, with sector market size estimated to US $823.2 billion in India. Ecosystem snapshot data from India reveals that most support organizations in the green enterprise ecosystem make their financial support available to ventures that have proven profitability, leaving gaps in support for ventures in their earlier stages of development.
• The sector deep dives in the full research report also reveal that the Waste Management and Circular Economy sector is dominated by informal businesses that are not adequately supported or engaged by the government.
• Activities in Phase II will therefore focus specifically on strengthening the entrepreneurial ecosystem within the sectors of Waste Management & Circular Economy in India in order to increase the availability of early stage capital to SGBs, expand the intermediary support that prepares ventures for investment, close knowledge gaps, and facilitate policy conversations to more productively engage the large informal waste sector to formalize and scale.
• It is clear that present acceleration services, as commonly delivered, are not sufficient to scale waste and circularity businesses. This is also true on a global scale, with research from the Global Accelerator Learning Initiative (GALI) showing that inefficiencies in the accelerator-to-investment pipeline are leaving many entrepreneurs unable to reach the next stage of business growth.
• ANDE, with funding from the IKEA Foundation, invites proposals that address this financing gap by testing models that catalyze investment into the sector through innovative approaches that improve collaboration between investors and ESOs to improve financing outcomes. The Investment Innovation Fund will source, test, and promote creative and impactful solutions to address this investment issue in India.

Categories

• ANDE is specifically seeking submissions employing creative capacity building solutions that increase the chances of the portfolio attracting private capital to help them grow and scale in at least one of the following categories:
  • Transformative approaches to delivering incubation or acceleration services including recruitment, selection, cohort and program design or other elements seen as constraints to the investability in Waste and circular economy SGBs.
  • Supplemental services delivered independently or in coordination with traditional incubator or accelerator programs including tailored consulting services, bespoke matchmaking, investment facilitation, mentorship or other approaches to address investment deficits in traditional acceleration.
  • Novel approaches to addressing systemic constraints that result in less investment being received by waste and circularity enterprises. For example, an incubation or acceleration program targeting waste management and circularity enterprises designed in partnership with potential follow-on investor/s that improve chances of follow-on investment.
• These activities should also, when possible, build the capacity of implementing organizations to continue to expand access to financing for waste and circularity in the future.

Funding Information

• Submissions should be for activities of up to 18 months with a maximum total request of US $100,000.  Note that proposal budgets will be evaluated for efficient use of funds.

Geography

• Please Note: Funding will be directed to ESOs from the US, so all necessary government approvals (FCRA, etc.) need to be in place for application.
• Only SGB ESOs with programs in India will be considered. Programs taking place outside of India will not be considered.

Eligibility Criteria

• Incubators, accelerators, capacity development providers, entrepreneur support organizations, and research and advisory service providers are welcome to apply. Preference will be given to proposals submitted by consortiums consisting of ESOs and investors.
• Note that donor agencies, foundations, and corporations are not qualified to apply. Also, when investor-ESO consortiums apply, funding will only go to ESOs. The number of proposals supported will be contingent on the quality and impact of the proposals received.
• Organizations may form a consortium and submit a joint proposal. An organization may submit or be involved in up to two proposals, however only one proposal will be selected. Only proposals submitted in English will be considered.

For more information, visit ANDE.