In July 2023, the European Union (EU), represented by the European Commission, and IDB signed a Contribution Agreement to provide a financial contribution to finance the implementation of the action “CARIBEquity: A Blended Finance Facility to Consolidate a Caribbean Investment Ecosystem for Inclusive Private Sector Innovation” (hereinafter referred to as “CARIBEquity Facility”). The main objective of the CARIBEquity Facility is to consolidate a Caribbean investment ecosystem for inclusive private sector innovation, enabling startups, early stage and growth-oriented Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) to innovate, thrive and create jobs.

The CARIBEquity Facility is a clear example on how the EU, through the IDB, is landing the “Global Gateway” in the Caribbean, with the EU’s offer to bridge the investment gap and leverage private capital and investment to boost innovative and transformative investments, tackling most pressing global challenges.

The CARIBEquity Facility is aligned with the IDB’s Caribbean Country Department “ONE Caribbean” a “whole of Bank” regional framework to improve the living conditions of citizens in the region. Specifically, the CARIBEquity Facility is aligned to the regional priority of private sector engagement, which emphasizes a renewed focus on rebuilding the enabling environment needed for private sector to develop and thrive, investing heavily in the Caribbean entrepreneurship ecosystem with a focus on accelerating and financing technology-based companies with high potential for growth and for positive social and environmental impacts, and empowering women and indigenous entrepreneurs, including improved through grant financing.

The challenging economic context facing the Caribbean has highlighted the need to find new solutions to address the most pressing and persistent developmental challenges. This has raised the importance of supporting private sector driven solutions, in particular new early-stage business innovations offering new solutions and/or business models, that can unlock development potential, create employment, and contribute to the re-activation and growth of Caribbean economies.

Despite this potential associated with promoting a vibrant start-up ecosystem that will support job creation in technology driven-innovation and entrepreneurship, several bottlenecks impede the ability of innovation support agencies to deliver sufficient support to the most promising start-up and scale-up companies in the Caribbean. Among these challenges are: (i) shortage of qualified mentors, advisors, and experts with relevant industry experience and networks, limiting the quality and depth of support that startups receive; (ii) highly fragmented and ad hoc service offerings that are not commercially structured to see a return on investment and promote financial sustainability, which in turn constrains the capacity of innovation support agencies to provide comprehensive support to entrepreneurs. This also includes challenges in securing operational funding, as well as difficulties in accessing capital for startups within the region; and, (iii) fragmentation of innovation ecosystems and the lack of connectedness among key actors (both public and private).

Thus for the private sector to innovate, thrive and expand, there is therefore a greater need for:

• Stronger innovation support structures, which enhances the quality and rigor of both generalized incubation / acceleration support, as well as specialized support in specific sectors or technologies.
• Enhanced financial sustainability models, that can support the long-term viability of innovation support agencies in the Caribbean. At present, organizations often rely on a narrow range of revenue streams to support their operations and continue providing valuable services to startups.
• Greater interconnectedness within the ecosystem, where key actors providing agile support to entrepreneurs require access to technical and financial resources and know-how to build their institutional capacity, but also to broker strategic connections and foster networks that can support startups in their cohorts to address the multiple challenges they face in the initial phases of their businesses.

In response to these challenges and opportunities, the EU and IDB Lab under the CARIBEquity Facility have established an ‘Innovation Ecosystem Challenge Fund’which will deploy individual technical assistance operations or ecosystem projects to benefit incubators, accelerators, academia, and other agencies supporting innovation.

This Call for Proposals (CfP) is aligned with the objectives of the CARIBEquity Facility as well as the commitment of its donors to consolidate a Caribbean investment ecosystem for inclusive private sector innovation and growth.

The CARIBEquity Facility, under its ‘Innovation Ecosystem Challenge Fund’, is looking to support innovation ecosystem actors such as accelerators, incubators, academia, and other agencies supporting innovation (e.g., impact hubs).

Proposals are invited against the following two (2) categories:

CATEGORY 1: PROMOTING GENERALIZED AND SPECIALIZED INCUBATION / ACCELERATION SERVICES & SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS MODELS

This category offers technical assistance support for accelerators, incubators, and other agencies supporting innovation (e.g., impact hubs) interested in:

• Enhancing the quality and rigor of generalized incubation / acceleration support provided at the national and/or regional level;
• Developing and delivering specialized incubation and acceleration services, with a focus on specific sectors and technologies aligned with the priority sectors of CARIBEquity (see Annex I of the Guidelines for further details on CARIBEquity priority areas); and,
• Developing and deploying sustainable business models that provide more diverse service offerings to the innovation ecosystem beyond traditional incubation / acceleration services.

Some examples of the types of incubation / acceleration services as well as sustainable business models that will be supported under this track include:

• Generalized Incubation / Acceleration Support
• Specialized Incubation / Acceleration Support (e.g., sector-specific incubation / acceleration, technology-specific incubation / acceleration)
• Sustainable Business Model Development (via New Service Delivery)

CATEGORY 2: SUPPORTING IMPLEMENTATION OF NEW PARTNERSHIP MODELS FOR INNOVATION

This category offers technical assistance support for universities and other academic institutions interested in:

• Promoting innovation and entrepreneurship among students and faculty members and becoming hubs of knowledge creation and dissemination;
• Expanding cooperation between innovation players within the innovation ecosystem, including students, faculty members, researchers, industry professionals, and other stakeholders to transfer cutting-edge research and expertise from academic settings to practical applications; and,
• Supporting the commercialization of research outcomes and incentivizing researchers to explore the commercial potential of their findings and inventions through technology transfer offices, patent licensing, and industry partnerships.

Some examples of the new models of partnership for innovation that will be supported under this track include:

• Creation of Entrepreneurial Labs within Universities
• Catalyzing Multi-Stakeholder “Triple Helix” Collaboration
• Innovation Commercialization and Technology Transfer

See Guidelines (Areas of Support) for further details on what we are looking for.

Incubators, accelerators, academia, and other agencies supporting innovation.

If your organization is legally registered in one of these 15 target countries where the project will be implemented, you can submit your proposal.

15 target countries:  Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, the Commonwealth of Dominica, the Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Saint Lucia, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago.

To apply please complete the online application available on this site by clicking Submit Proposal, within the deadlines. This call is receiving applications until 26 July 2024.

Non-reimbursable Technical Cooperation/Technical Assistance – Ecosystem Grants

• EU funding: up to EUR300,000 / USD 321,225
• Counterpart funds to be provided by the Applicant: 50% of the total budget, half in cash and half in kind

Selected Applicants will receive EU funding once:

• The proposal has been duly analyzed to obtain evidence of its viability;
• The Applicant’s experience in the sector, capacity to manage the financial resources and project execution experience has been evaluated;
• Availability of or ability to mobilize counterpart resources has been demonstrated; and,
• A legal written agreement to use EU funding and counterpart resources towards the implementation of the selected model/project will need to be signed by both parties (IDB Lab and Applicant once selected through the analysis process). The legal agreement framework will be provided to selected applicants only.

All Applicants, regardless of whether they are selected or not, will also be included among CARIBEquity’s network to exchange knowledge, experiences, best practices, and may have opportunities to participate in networking events organized by CARIBEquity and its partners.

Find below the memories of the Information and Q&A session about the call for proposals that was held on June 14th.

Presentation

Recording

Please send your questions to

CARIBEquity@iadb.org