The top winners in the categories of environment and health will receive grant funding from the juried prize competition

WASHINGTON, D.C., November 13, 2023 – FINCA International is launching the FINCA Ventures Prize to support social entrepreneurs who share FINCA’s steadfast commitment to ending global poverty.

On November 13, 2023, the FINCA Ventures Prize will launch its online application that 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.

For more information and to apply to compete for the prize competition, visit https://fincaventures.awardsplatform.com/.  

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About FINCA International

For 40 years, FINCA International has been in the vanguard of the fight to end global poverty. Our approach is rooted in the belief that the most impactful and sustainable solutions are those that unleash the wisdom, talent, and work ethic of people with lived experience. Our objective is to give the world’s most vulnerable and disadvantaged people access to the knowledge, resources, and opportunities they need to break the cycle of poverty in their lives. For more information, visit www.FINCA.org or follow us on Twitter @FINCA.

About FINCA Ventures

FINCA Ventures is the impact investing arm of FINCA International and supports early-stage companies operating within agriculture, financial inclusion, health and education within sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America. FINCA Ventures invests in companies whose products and services support smallholder farmers, families on the margins, and microbusinesses to build more resilient and prosperous communities.