Mercy Corps Ventures is launching a second year of its Crypto for Good Fund of $1 million. The company announced on Tuesday revealing that the Fund has been set up to test and support Web3 solutions for underserved groups in emerging markets globally.
“The objective of the Fund is to drive global financial inclusion and climate resilience through a series of pilots, building an evidence base to prove the scalability of blockchain-enabled solutions in making a positive impact in emerging markets,” the company stated.
The fund is targeting startups and organizations operating in Africa, South and Southeast Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, the Middle East, Pacific Islands, and Western Balkans, that innovatively apply Web3 and blockchain technology to build solutions for underserved populations.
According to Mercy Corps Ventures, up to ten eligible enterprises will receive up to $100,000 in grant funding to test their pilot projects applying blockchain and other Web3 technologies to build financial inclusion and/or climate resilience solutions for users.
Furthermore, the startups will receive mentorship, impact measurement advisory, access to partnership opportunities, knowledge exchange, and brand exposure.
Scott Onder, Managing Director of Mercy Corps Ventures commented on the project saying, “We know that startups are bringing new, innovative solutions to the world’s most pressing challenges. We want to support founders to scale these nascent solutions by offering strategic support and funding to test, validate and accelerate their work to onboard the next generation of users in emerging markets.”
Applicants can submit their pilot proposals here. Applications are open from February 14th to March 31st, 2023.
In the first phase of the Fund, launched in 2022, Mercy Corps Ventures received nearly 200 applications from 50+ countries around the globe. Winners included Empowa, using NFTs to fuel affordable, climate-smart housing in Mozambique, Atlantis DAO, building a decentralized token network for clean water access in India, and Forest Carbon, building equitable carbon offset projects in Indonesia with Web3.