📋 Tender Overview
To help identify and scale innovative tech solutions for todays most pressing global challenges across emerging markets IFC is partnering with The Engine the venture capital firm founded by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology MIT. IFC will invest 20 million in The Engine Fund II which will support Tough Tech companies also known as Deep Tech a category of startups that aim to develop and commercialize complex scientific or engineering discoveries that can solve the worlds most challenging problems such as in human health energy access and climate change.The Engine provides the companies with the capital and expertise needed to allow effective development and commercialization of foundational technology-based global solutions which often require specialized resources and longer periods of research and development due to their complexity. IFC will facilitate their scale-up and expansion across emerging markets where tech innovations can have an even greater impact.Solving many of todays toughest development challenges requires cutting-edge scientific innovations that reach the people who need them most Makhtar Diop IFCs Managing Director. Complex technologies that can help prevent disease bring clean-energy to off-grid communities and reduce carbon emissions require strong investment support to dedicate the time effort and brilliant minds needed to bring these ideas to market.According to a BCG-Hello Tomorrow report investment in deep tech grew from 15 billion in 2016 to over 60 billion in 2020. The COVID-19 crisis has further accelerated the trend by pushing institutions around the world to boost investment in research and development of new technologies that can help address critical challenges in healthcare and pandemic response. Tough Tech is critical to addressing significant global challenges but the ecosystem required to support it is extremely complex it involves cutting-edge universities and research innovative entrepreneurs and visionary investors who are willing to believe in and back fundamentally new ideas that call for radical change but represent tremendously positive potential outcomes said Katie Rae CEO and Managing Partner of The Engine. This is where leading impact investing institutions like IFC play a key role by bringing long-term capital and the convening power needed to conceive and commercialize new technologies from lab to market.Over 40 of the portfolio companies from The Engines first fund are founded or co-founded by women reflecting the funds commitment to supporting diverse leadership in a historically male-dominated field like Tough Tech. The Engines Fund II will continue to invest in and nurture a diverse pool of talented entrepreneurs including female and underrepresented minority founders.IFC joins MIT and Harvard University as investors in The Engine Fund II bringing the firms total capital commitments across the two funds to 515M.The Engine Fund II follows Fund I which was launched in 2017 and supports a wide range of Tough Tech solutions ranging from energy storage systems that can help manage renewables variability to a platform that analyzes wastewater to help communities monitor health indicators.
