A new financial relief facility has been launched for Nigerian startups affected by the COVID-19 crisis, which will disburse grants to ensure qualifying post-MVP stage high-growth companies remain viable and resilient.
Launched by Ventures Platform and Acumen, with support from LoftyInc, the Nigeria Impact Startup Relief Facility (NISRF) will provide grants of between US$5,000 and US$20,000 to support applicants whose businesses are either being adversely affected or modified in response to COVID-19 for a period of six months.
The facility will support impact-oriented startups that are at the post-MVP stage, are high-growth, and can demonstrate the scale of impact, amongst other criteria. The collaborating investors are inviting other investors, ecosystem players, development partners, and government institutions to also join the NISRF.
“COVID-19 has reminded us of our interconnected fate, and has reinforced the importance of building more just and equitable societies. Acumen has long been focused on investing in businesses that share this aspiration and use the power of markets as a tool for tackling urgent social problems,” said Meghan Curran, West Africa director at Acumen.
“Acumen is a global non-profit changing the way the world tackles poverty by investing patient capital in social enterprises and building a community of leaders committed to building a more just and sustainable world. Through the NISRF, we’re excited to ensure that the pandemic doesn’t impede the progress of these companies in building new models for our post-COVID reality.”
Ventures Platform founder Kola Aina said his company was always looking to forge strategic partnerships like this to provide support to entrepreneurs.
“Through this partnership, our expected outcome is that funded startups remain resilient through the COVID-19 crisis and are better able to take advantage of the increased opportunity for digital adoption, while we inspire a culture of triple-bottom-line and active philanthropy in our ecosystem,” he said.
Applications are open here until September 7.
