DIV Fund

The DIV Fund is an independent nonprofit that carries forward the work of USAID's Development Innovation Ventures (DIV) programme. DIV began within USAID in 2010 and, over 15 years, supported more than 300 innovations across 54 countries. When USAID's innovation units were dissolved in early 2025, the DIV leadership team—including former DIV head Sasha Gallant as CEO and Nobel Prize–winning economist Michael Kremer as Chair—raised an emergency USD 20 million round to sustain the programme, with total philanthropic commitments since reaching USD 48 million.

The fund operates as an evidence-driven research and development engine for global development, backing innovations that can cost-effectively improve lives at scale in low- and middle-income countries, including India. It uses a tiered, milestone-based grant model: Stage 1 Pilot Grants of up to USD 200,000 (approximately ₹1.8 crore) fund real-world pilots to test feasibility and proof of concept; Stage 2 Test & Position for Scale grants of up to USD 500,000–750,000 (approximately ₹4.5–6.8 crore) support rigorous randomised control trials or market validation; and Stage 3 Scale Grants of up to USD 1.5 million (approximately ₹13.5 crore) accelerate adoption of validated innovations. All grants are non-dilutive, with no equity taken and no debt provided, and can be used flexibly for implementation, data collection, evaluation, and personnel costs.

The DIV Fund prioritises innovations in health, agriculture, education, financial inclusion, energy access, and climate adaptation, focusing on benefits for populations living in poverty. Eligible applicants include nonprofits, social enterprises, for-profit startups, universities, and research organisations incorporated in any country, provided their work benefits people in low- and middle-income countries; Indian applicants qualify as India is classified as a lower-middle-income country by the World Bank. Applicants must have at least a prototype-stage innovation and a credible theory of change for reaching over one million beneficiaries at scale. Government agencies and intermediaries such as incubators are not eligible as primary grantees. The fund accepts applications on a rolling basis with no fixed deadline, and applications are reviewed against three criteria: evidence of impact, cost-effectiveness, and potential for durable scale, with the process from submission to decision typically taking several months.