Digital innovation, boosted by technologies like AI, is advancing socio-economic development in LMICs by supporting economic growth, job access, services and climate resilience.
Since the first edition of the GSMA Innovation Fund Impact Portfolio, the portfolio has grown significantly, nearly doubling in size and extending into eight additional countries. This growth reflects our vision to de-risk innovation across multiple sectors in both Africa and Southeast Asia through strategic collaboration and increased follow-on investment. Three additional Innovation Funds have taken place since 2023: Anticipatory Humanitarian Action, Climate Resilience and Adaptation and Humanitarian Challenges.
As we reflect on the growth of the portfolio over the last two years leading up to the GSMA Innovation Fund Impact Portfolio for 2025, distinct patterns emerge in the technologies and stakeholders shaping meaningful change on a large scale.
The portfolio in numbers, from December 2023 to March 2025:
| 2023 | 2025 |
| 33 organisations | 62 organisations |
| 17 countries | 25 countries |
| 14.9m people impacted | 61.8m people impacted |
| 14 mobile operator partnerships | 30 mobile operator partnerships |
| 21% of portfolio organisations are women-led | 27% of portfolio organisations are women-led |
| £4.16m awarded to the portfolio | £12m awarded to the portfolio |
| £17.94m follow on funding | £44.5m follow on funding* |
*While the amount of further funding raised by the 62 portfolio organisations was just over £44m in March this year, that number has increased to £65m by September 2025.
The recent funding activity among grantees highlights a dynamic mix of investment sources fuelling innovation. Equity investments accounted for 33% of the total raised, with grants and blended finance contributing to the remaining two thirds of total funding. This diverse funding landscape is a testament to the portfolio’s resilience and adaptability, empowering startups to pursue growth and scale transformative solutions.
In addition to this growth, here are three key trends from the GSMA Innovation Fund Impact Portfolio that reveal how digital innovation is driving sustainable impact.
1. Emerging tech takes centre stage
Artificial Intelligence, the Internet of Things and blockchain are enabling solutions that address real-world problems and help reach vulnerable communities who need access to products and services. As of March 2025, more portfolio organisations are implementing emerging technologies, such as:
- Blockchain to strengthen supply chain transparency (such as Dayaxa using blockchain for sustainable and fair frankincense farming in Ethiopia)
- AI supporting climate resilience (e.g., Crop2X using AI and mobile technology to provide data-driven, real-time insights to farmers in Pakistan)
- IoT for remote monitoring (Koolboks using IoT to monitor their smart refrigerators in Nigeria)
2. Increasing support of women-led innovation
This year’s portfolio includes a growing number of women-led organisations, with the proportion increasing from 21% to 27%. We define women-led organisations as those who have a female founder or co-founder, or where at least 50% of the management team are women. This signifies a promising shift, as supporting female tech founders and diverse teams can deliver higher revenues and superior social and financial results.
We recently spoke about the challenges of the entrepreneurial journey with Tiffany Tong, who founded Aloi in Nepal with Sonika Manandhar. Aloi, a digital platform helping informal entrepreneurs to access financing through verified merchants in Nepal, received a GSMA grant in March 2024 to help dairy farmers adopt climate-smart practices.
“The GSMA has been really helpful in terms of some of the growing pains of a startup. I think we all start out wanting to make impact, we want to grow our company…but there is a lot of the operational side that we don’t think about, compliance, systems, policies…that is often not an entrepreneur’s strong point. So [the GSMA’s support] really complements it.”
Tiffany Tong, Aloi co-founder and CEO
3. Climate resilience is a core theme
Across the portfolio, several organisations are designing solutions that help vulnerable communities adapt to a changing climate. From smart agriculture tools that boost yields (such as BaKhabar Kissan’s agritech platform offering digital advisory services, localised weather data and farming knowledge to farmers) and early warning systems that protect lives and livelihoods (such as ConnectHear’s AI-generated sign language alerts for at-risk individuals with hearing impairments) digital innovation is proving essential to tackling environmental risks. As climate challenges intensify globally, these locally driven solutions are more relevant than ever.
The GSMA Innovation Fund invites impact-driven investors, donors and ecosystem partners to join us in accelerating the next wave of inclusive innovations.
With additional patient capital, we can unlock even greater socio-economic and environmental impact. If you are interested in funding or partnering with any of our portfolio organisations, contact us at GSMAIF@gsma.com and sign up to our newsletter here.
Finally, watch for announcements of the finalists chosen for the upcoming Funds:
- The GSMA Innovation Fund for Humanitarian Replication and Scaling, to be announced in November 2025
- The GSMA Innovation Fund for Impactful AI, to be announced in December 2025
The GSMA Innovation Fund is currently funded by UK International Development from the UK government and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), and is supported by the GSMA and its members.
