• Winners will be part of an extensive network and introduced to various partners, mentors, and service providers to help them achieve their expansion goals.   
• They will also have access to an exclusive learning community where they can exchange ideas with their cohort peers in the cohort and other Regional Innovation Hubs through regular workshops and meetings.

• Receive support to expand the business to other geographies, products, or services 
• Attract and secure external investors by working with S/CA RIH’s Brokering Unit.
• Examples of support categories:
  • Investment readiness
  • Commercial expansion
  • Marketing and communication
  • Digitalization and technology enhancement

Select organizations may qualify for grants to help achieve scaling goals, funding size ranges from $40,000 to $200,000 USD.

WE4F is open to legally incorporated/registered for-profit businesses and nonprofit organizations or academic institutions with a proven business model, recurring sales, an existing customer base, and the ability to generate revenue and maintain a self-sustaining operational budget. 

WE4F is open to all relevant organizations/companies which are ready to scale. We encourage applications from small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). 

The S/CA RIH supports innovators from Angola, Botswana, Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eswatini, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Applicants must be legally registered in at least one of these countries. If expansion into a new country is a key part of an applicant’s business plan, they must demonstrate that they already have partners in place in that country to be considered.  

Application responses must be written in English or French.

Applicants should be open and willing to contribute the matching funds to the overall award if a grant is awarded. The final amount of matching funds will be determined on a case-by-case basis for each applicant near the time of award.

Applicants’ innovations must have a direct, tangible linkage to water-food, energy-food, or water-energy-food. In addition, innovations must directly or indirectly impact poverty reduction and gender equality and have a positive impact on the environment and avoid negative environmental effects.