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Global Innovation Fund
The Global Innovation Fund (GIF) is a non-profit investment fund. It invests in the development, testing, and scaling of social innovations with the potential to have a measurable impact on the lives of those living on less than $5 per day, such as new products, services, business processes, and policy reforms. It is headquartered in London with offices in Washington, D.C., Nairobi and Singapore.
GIF was launched as an independent nonprofit in 2014 with a $200 million commitment from the UK's Department for International Development, the U.S. Agency for International Development, Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Swedish International Development Agency, as well as The Omidyar Network.
GIF was founded "with the goal of creating an entity separate from government bureaucracy that could look at what different financing models can do for development". Its founding aim was to "pool capital to spur creative, pioneering interventions to tackle global development challenges". Alix Peterson Zwane was named as GIF's first CEO in 2015.
Former UK Prime Minister David Cameron announced the launch of GIF following the revision of the UK's foreign aid agenda, which pledged to uphold the UK government's commitment to spend 0.7% of Gross National Income (GNI) on Official Development Assistance and “a step-change in the effectiveness of the UK’s approach to aid”.
In 2024, GIF launched a "spinoff" subsidiary, GIF Growth, designed to help early growth-stage companies across the developing world to scale.
In 2019, GIF announced a new sub-fund focused on gender equality in partnership with Global Affairs Canada. The sub fund invests in “innovations that increase the agency of women and girls. Innovations in the fund work towards greater participation by women in decision making, prevention of violence against women and girls, and greater control over assets”.
At the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland, GIF launched its Innovating for Climate Resilience fund, in partnership with the Adaptation Research Alliance and the Global Resilience Partnership and with seed funding from the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office.
This sub fund “invests, through grant, equity and debt instruments, in innovations with the potential to scale and support the world’s poorest to build resilience and adaptation”. In 2022, GIF announced the first innovations to receive investment from the Innovating for Climate Resilience fund: Agritask, a decision-support platform for agricultural operations which received investment of $3 million; and PLACE, a non-profit hyperlocal mapping organisation, which received a $460,000 grant.
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Global Innovation Fund
The Global Innovation Fund (GIF) is a non-profit investment fund. It invests in the development, testing, and scaling of social innovations with the potential to have a measurable impact on the lives of those living on less than $5 per day, such as new products, services, business processes, and policy reforms. It is headquartered in London with offices in Washington, D.C., Nairobi and Singapore.
GIF was launched as an independent nonprofit in 2014 with a $200 million commitment from the UK's Department for International Development, the U.S. Agency for International Development, Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Swedish International Development Agency, as well as The Omidyar Network.
GIF was founded "with the goal of creating an entity separate from government bureaucracy that could look at what different financing models can do for development". Its founding aim was to "pool capital to spur creative, pioneering interventions to tackle global development challenges". Alix Peterson Zwane was named as GIF's first CEO in 2015.
Former UK Prime Minister David Cameron announced the launch of GIF following the revision of the UK's foreign aid agenda, which pledged to uphold the UK government's commitment to spend 0.7% of Gross National Income (GNI) on Official Development Assistance and “a step-change in the effectiveness of the UK’s approach to aid”.
In 2024, GIF launched a "spinoff" subsidiary, GIF Growth, designed to help early growth-stage companies across the developing world to scale.
In 2019, GIF announced a new sub-fund focused on gender equality in partnership with Global Affairs Canada. The sub fund invests in “innovations that increase the agency of women and girls. Innovations in the fund work towards greater participation by women in decision making, prevention of violence against women and girls, and greater control over assets”.
At the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland, GIF launched its Innovating for Climate Resilience fund, in partnership with the Adaptation Research Alliance and the Global Resilience Partnership and with seed funding from the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office.
This sub fund “invests, through grant, equity and debt instruments, in innovations with the potential to scale and support the world’s poorest to build resilience and adaptation”. In 2022, GIF announced the first innovations to receive investment from the Innovating for Climate Resilience fund: Agritask, a decision-support platform for agricultural operations which received investment of $3 million; and PLACE, a non-profit hyperlocal mapping organisation, which received a $460,000 grant.