A big idea is one that can scale. Scale means exponential impact.
We look for ideas with the potential for exponential impact. We work with founders to achieve it. We go with them from start-up to scale-up.
We find great people with big ideas for the places that
need them most.
We teach founders what it takes to go big and we fund the journey to get there. Below are some of them...
From zero to 30M trained
From zero to 20M farmers insured
From 10M to 50M monthly viewers
From videos to AI for Farmers
From 80K to 1.5M people with new access annually
From an idea to 6M people with healthcare
From an idea to national programs
From data to global users
From zero to 6K employees and 2M farmers
From 1 village to 1.4M girls back in school
From 1 clinic to 3 countries
From 1 district to 4 countries
From 10 to 59 partners
From 1 village to 13 countries
From 10K to 600K kids fed daily
From 30K kids to over 1M kids
From startup to vaccines for 14% of all babies
From 1 road to every dangerous Indian highway
Find
We find founders who have a scalable solution to poverty—and the chops to deliver it.
Healthcare, education, livelihoods, nutrition, a healthy environment— whatever leads to a better life and a route out of poverty. Each year, we recruit the best twenty we can find into our Fellows program.
1000
+
Organizations we looked at last year
200
+
Organizations spoke to last year to find out more
20
New Fellows selected every year
Teach
We teach them what it will take to go big.
We've worked with 250+ fellows now, and we’ve learned what they need. It starts with design for impact and strategy for scale.
Fund
We go the distance.
We fund Fellows who emerge with promising model, strategy, and organization. Every grant/investment we make is a bet on the potential for exponential impact over time. We stay in as long as there is compelling progress toward scale.
Here are some recent additions to our portfolio:
Water and Sanitation
Uduma
Broken water pumps litter the African continent—everyone wants to build new ones, but rarely is there a plan to keep clean water flowing.
Health
Pinky Promise
Most women in India will never be able to see a gynecologist. In India, there are 360M women of reproductive age and only 70K registered gynecologists, of whom ~90% practice in big, urban areas.
Environment
Farmers for Forests
Modern farming has led to degraded soils, depleted water tables, and plummeting biodiversity across India.
Education
Darsel
There’s a global math learning crisis—60% of kids around the world are below minimum proficiency levels. Meanwhile, mobile phones have become ubiquitous and kids have access to them.
Funding Overview
We fund high-impact organizations to do what they do well. We back both for-profits and nonprofits: mostly grants, sometimes debt or equity if it fits.
Right now, that's 77 portfolio organizations and 20 new fellows each year. Last year we put $26M behind them.
Mulago's Links
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