Applications Invited for Mercy Corps Ventures Crypto For Good Fund

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About the Organization

Mercy Corps Ventures invests in and catalyzes venture-led solutions to increase the resilience of underserved individuals and communities. Founded in 2015 as the impact investing arm of global development agency, Mercy Corps, we’ve supported 47 early-stage ventures to scale and raise over $443 million in follow-on capital. Our portfolio is 49% female-founded and centers around resilience-building solutions in adaptive agriculture and food systems, inclusive fintech, and climate-smart technologies, so that those living in frontier markets can withstand disruption and plan for the future. Through capital and support, piloting new approaches, action-oriented insights, and rigorously managing impact, we catalyze the ecosystem toward smarter, more impactful investments.

About the Fund

In February 2024, Mercy Corps Ventures launched the third round of the Crypto for Good Fund. After two rounds of C4G featuring 400 applicants, 10+ launched pilots and $1M+ in capital committed to partners, we are excited to return with a third edition of the Fund.

Our high-level objective remains unchanged: fund impactful real world web3 use cases to drive global financial inclusion and climate resilience across emerging markets. Our ambition remains focused on building an evidence base to prove the scalability of blockchain-enabled solutions in making a positive impact in emerging markets.

With 15 web3 pilots launched to-date, we aim to continue pushing the frontiers of innovation to identify the highest-potential, highest-impact initiatives in the cryptoverse.

This edition of the Fund will be focused on the next frontier of crypto innovation. We’re looking for builders who are pushing the boundaries to improve the lives and livelihoods of underserved users across the emerging markets.

Priority themes include, but are not limited to:

• DePIN — how can we improve financing for critical climate-smart infrastructure?
• Humanitarian aid delivery — how can we better serve the 299M people in need of aid?
• Ramps — how can we onboard more people to financial freedom?
• RWA / asset tokenization — how can tokenized assets improve livelihoods?
• ReFi — how can we promote and restore the environment alongside financial gains?

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 who innovatively apply Web3 and blockchain technology to build solutions for underserved populations.

 

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.

Eligibility

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

• Be a startup or organization leveraging, or looking to leverage, blockchain to deliver financial inclusion and climate resilience solutions to underserved users in at least one eligible country (see section 3).
• Have active users and revenue in at least one eligible country (see section 3).
• 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 (see geographic specific restrictions in section 3).
• 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 (as set out in section 1) 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.
• The applicant (startup) must commit significant resources to demonstrate commitment and signal the strategic importance of the pilot opportunity. This should include skin-in-the-game through financial resources and/or management resources.
• Only one 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.

How to Apply

Deadline for application: March 31, 2024

APPLY NOW

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Tags Environment and Sustainability Financial Inclusion Others