FINCA International has launched the FINCA Ventures Prize to support social entrepreneurs who share FINCA’s steadfast commitment to ending global poverty.
Launched on November 13, 2023, the FINCA Ventures Prize online application is open to social entrepreneurs with bold visions, disruptive business models, or new products or technologies that can create meaningful impact for poor and low-income people in developing markets. The FINCA Ventures Prize will culminate in an event in March 2024 in Washington DC. The event will feature in-person pitch presentations by the finalists to a jury and a celebration of the top winners in the categories of environment and health. Finalists will be awarded grant funding of up to $70,000 to further develop their social enterprises.
“Early-stage social entrepreneurs, especially those operating in sub-Saharan Africa face significant challenges in raising capital to grow their businesses, which keeps poor and low-income people from accessing high-quality goods and services that can improve their lives,” says Omer Imtiazuddin, managing director of FINCA Ventures. “With support from our generous sponsor, we are excited to fund young entrepreneurs to solve pressing global health and environmental issues that we hear from FINCA customers every day.”
Through the FINCA Ventures Prize, FINCA also seeks to elevate awareness among donor and investor networks of the powerful potential to catalyze startups seeking to deliver impactful and scalable solutions to poor and low-income customers.
In the health category, the FINCA Ventures Prize will prioritize social entrepreneurs who are developing and scaling solutions that improve access and decrease cost for people with limited or no access to quality healthcare. We expect a range of applications from entrepreneurs building out brick and mortar facilities, to digital platforms and medical devices that increase access to healthcare, to B2B and B2C financial solutions tailored for the healthcare sector.
In the environment category, the FINCA Ventures Prize is focused on agricultural solutions that drive climate adaptation specifically in the agriculture sector. Enterprising applicants might be building local processing capacity that gives smallholder farmers better market access and stimulates the adoption of improved farming practices, delivering ag tech and digital extension service, or creating financial solutions that help farmers weather climate shocks and crop failures.