The Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth announced the newest grant recipients of the Mastercard Strive Innovation Fund, with nearly $2 million in grants distributed globally. Mastercard Strive supports early-stage solutions with the potential to drive outsized impact for small businesses in the categories of sustainability, digitalisation, community lending, and more. Funding is awarded to change-making organisations focused on building, testing, and scaling creative solutions that drive small business growth, financial resilience, and environmental sustainability.
The Strive Innovation Fund program, which is administered by Caribou Digital and DAI, will support 11 organisations around the world, including seven organisations focused on innovative digital solutions that support small businesses’ growth in environmental sustainability and data for market access. In the United States, grants will be awarded, through Strive USA, to four organisations focused on elevating and accelerating promising ideas for strengthening the small business ecosystem through digital and data-first approaches.
“Every day, digital advances are creating new opportunities for small business growth and resilience. Mastercard Strive helps provide the necessary funding to develop and scale ideas and solutions that meet the needs of small businesses today and for the future. This is key as we work toward an economy and society that promises opportunity for everyone, everywhere,” said Shamina Singh, founder and president of the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth.
Strive is a global portfolio of philanthropic programs that aim to help small businesses around the world thrive in the digital economy. Through targeted grant-making and local partnerships, Strive supports small businesses with the goal of building more resilient enterprises that have more opportunities to grow and succeed.
