Is your business working to address a social challenge and are you seeking capital to address any or a combination of the Sustainable Development Goals? If yes, please apply for the 2022 Impact Investors Foundation (IIF) Investment Readiness Programme for Inclusive Business companies, funded by the Inclusive Business Action Network (iBAN).

To address Africa’s socio-economic challenges both innovative entrepreneurs and new business models must emerge. We believe that the private sector will be at the forefront of finding solutions to the development needs of the continent through innovative financing and implementation approaches. IIF and iBAN support this vision by providing investment readiness and acceleration services to inclusive businesses companies who combine financial success with positive social change.

We are launching an Investment Readiness Programme to provide the inclusive business companies development support required to grow and scale their enterprise. Participants will gain the key ingredients to become ready for investment, including:

• Constructing an impact case;
• Market access, sales and distribution;
• Strategic planning;
• Impact management & measurement;
• Financial modelling and planning;
• Writing an investment case to secure funding; and
• Pitching to investors.

The four-month accelerator is designed around the specific needs of each participating business and focused exclusively on their investment readiness. Companies that have successfully completed the programme and are ready to pitch to investors will be invited to this year’s IIF Annual Deal Summit. They will have the opportunity to present their company to national and international impact investors from the IIF network. This is a unique opportunity to learn from leading experts and to be exposed to a network of local and international investors all free of charge.

PROGRAMME BENEFITS

• Small training cohort of only 15 companies and additional individual coaching;
• Gain knowledge of impact investing and understand what impact investors want;
• Access free specialized training worth thousands of dollars from an industry leading advisory firm to help you become impact and investment ready;
• Network with a range of providers of impact capital from across the world;
• Get the opportunity to pitch your company at the IIF Annual Deal Summit;
• Become part of the IIF pipeline and benefit from ongoing matchmaking activities.

CRITERIA FOR PARTICIPATION

Companies must:

• Have been in operations for 2+ years
• Be commercially viable (i.e., does not rely on grants) or can demonstrate that commercial viability is achievable within a likely expansion scenario
• Have clear social impact focus by involving the people living at the base of the pyramid as customers, employees, retailers, distributors of supplies (at least 25% of revenue or income comes from BOP)
• Not have raised more than US$5M externally
• Seek ticket size between US$200,000 – US$5m
• Commit senior company executives (preferably the CEO) to take a substantial role in training and matching activities.

KEY DATES

• Applications open: Tuesday, April 26, 2022
• Applications close: Tuesday, May 17, 2022
• Accelerator program events: June – September 2022
• Deal Summit: November 9, 2022

We welcome you to complete the application form using this link: https://portal.impactinvestorsfoundation.org/register

PLEASE NOTE, YOUR COMPANY MUST HAVE A CLEAR IMPACT FOCUS OR ORIENTATION THAT SOLVES A SOCIAL PROBLEM OR INTEGRATE THE BOP IN YOUR VALUE CHAIN!

For more information on Inclusive Business, please visit ”What is Inclusive Business?” on inclusivebusiness.net, the platform for IB practitioners, managed by iBAN. The Inclusive Business Action Network (iBAN), a global initiative supporting the scaling and replication of inclusive business models. Through its strategic approach, IBAN supports companies with tailor-made investment readiness programmes and develops national inclusive business policy strategies with policymakers. iBAN is funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH. An earlier phase of this project (01/2017 – 12/2021) was supported by the European Union.