Marketplace’s Innovation Accelerator Program 2019 for Nutrition-Sensitive Business

by OFA August 28, 2019

Application Deadline:6 September 2019, 11:59PM East African Time

The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition through its Marketplace for Nutritious Foods Project is pleased to invite applications for the fourth Innovation Accelerator call for proposals.

The goal of GAIN’s Marketplace for Nutritious Foods program is to increase the production, marketing, and availability of more safe and nutritious foods by promoting innovation and catalyzing private sector engagement. It does this through improving access to knowledge, networks, technical assistance and funding by means of the following strategies: a) A Community of Practice for knowledge and networking; b) Innovation Accelerator to evaluate and provide advanced financial support and technical services to businesses showing the greatest potential for positive nutritional impact and business strength and; c) links eligible businesses with potential investors for further investment.

The application should be completed by reading the application guidelines and Submitting the Innovation Accelerator application form and company self-assessment form, which can be downloaded along with application instructions (including eligibility and evaluation criteria) on the Marketplace website and at the bottom of this page. Once completed both forms should be saved as a PDF document and emailed to [email protected]

The Process

STEP 1:
Companies submit their proposals. Applications contain copies of the proposal template, the self-assessment form, Award Information and accompanying instructions. If you have any questions about the process, feel free to contactthe Marketplace team— you should receive a response within 24 hours.

STEP 2:
Proposals are evaluated by the local GAIN team. Promising proposals that fit the Marketplace objectives will receive site visits and interviews to further assess the viability of the innovation and the company.

STEP 3:
Site Visits to a shortlist of companies by GAIN staff are conducted, in order to, i) verify the company need as presented through their proposal and ii) carry out Due Diligence.

STEP 4:
Companies will be invited to present their proposals and the type of support they require to the Marketplace Technical Advisory Committee (TAC), a panel of local and international experts in nutrition, agriculture, food technology and business. The TAC will evaluate the proposals and requests for support against the evaluation criteria.

STEP 5:
Following completion of site visits and Pitching to TAC, GAIN staff will confirm support being awarded to companies. Companies will be eligible to receive technical assistance and/or financial support to help them further develop their business innovation.

STEP 6:
As companies emerge from the Innovation Accelerator, GAIN will seek, where appropriate, to make introductions between companies to investors, providing a critical step to lowering the risk profile of agriculture-nutrition innovations and make them more attractive to a wide field of investors.