Of the 1.2 million people who lack basic energy access around the world, 772 million are covered by mobile networks. Similar figures exist for water and sanitation, as 289 million of those lacking access to drinking water, and 2.4 billion people without improved sanitation facilities are covered by mobile networks.

The GSMA M4D Utilities Innovation Fund awards grants to mobile operators, innovators and service providers to trial or scale commercially sustainable solutions that leverage mobile to directly improve access to basic utilities for underserved consumers.

The GSMA M4D Utilities Innovation Fund is now open for applications!

They will be awarding GBP 3.3 million in grant funds to 15 – 17 organisations who will trial or scale commercially sustainable mobile-enabled utility services.

• Seed Grants (up to £150,000): The primary aim of these grants is to support the trial of products/services that use mobile to enable sustainable access to energy, water or sanitation.
• Market Validation Grants (up to £300,000): The primary aim is to support partnerships with mobile network operators or urban utility service providers to support scaling or replication of an existing service that increases or improves access to sustainable energy, water and sanitation services to underserved consumers. The service will already have demonstrated early success and have active users in at least one market.

They are looking for innovators with new products or services that leverage mobile technology as a significant element of their utility delivery model for projects in Sub-Saharan Africa, South and Southeast Asia.

Deadline: April 16, 2017

These grants have so far been competitively awarded to 34 organisations across four continents, amounting to £5.6 million, supporting a wide variety of projects across the three utility sectors. The innovative models supported by the fund have impacted the lives of over 2.3 million users globally to date.