Global Due Diligence – Spark Fund
The Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves (GACC) is a U.N.-sponsored public-private initiative that seeks to save lives, empower women, and protect the environment by creating a thriving global market place for clean and efficient household cooking solutions. The GACC has three grant funding facilities: the Pilot Innovation Fund (PIF), the Spark Fund and the Women’s Empowerment Fund (WEF), from which they award venture-like funding to clean cooking and biofuel social enterprises worldwide.
GACC engaged I-DEV to conduct a 360-degree review of the Pilot Innovation and Women’s Empowerment Funds to provide recommendations on improving the strategy, structure and processes of the two programs.
I-DEV was hired by the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves (GACC) to conduct in-field due diligence of 17 finalist companies that had applied for funding from its Spark Fund. The Spark Fund focuses on investment in venture and growth stage clean cooking and eco-fuel companies with high potential for impact, and funding from Spark is designed to catalyze outside investment as well as scale of the business. I-DEV conducted due diligence on 17 companies in 13 countries around the world in under 2 months, resulting in 6 companies receiving an investment.
