Man watering crops in Africa

SUPPORTING SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURS TO DELIVER LARGE-SCALE CHANGE

Shell Foundation applies entrepreneurial thinking to empower underserved populations in Africa and Asia to earn a living income through access to clean energy. We seek to deploy our resources in three ways to encourage innovation and scale.

1. Supporting Early-Stage Innovation

In order to build sustainable and impactful markets, we provide patient support to early-stage businesses and intermediaries capable of delivering social change at scale via ground-breaking technologies or business models without long-term reliance on charitable support or subsidy.

2. Forging scaling partnerships

In order to impact millions of our target customers over the next 10 years, we seek to work with companies already serving them today. We partner with large, established manufacturers, distributors and businesses across the value-chain – supporting them to rapidly test, adopt and commercialise energy access solutions and to remove barriers to scale. 

3. Attracting institutional capital​

We use our expertise and experience to present the investment case in energy access solutions, our concessional capital to de-risk opportunities and unlock commercial funding, and our understanding of markets and business to develop and scale new and appropriate financing mechanisms.

How do we support our portfolio?

We support pioneering enterprises to test and prove ideas that can transform the way millions of people live and work, providing:

  • Patient, flexible and risk-tolerant funding to encourage impact, scale and viability
  • High touch business support and strategic guidance
  • Links to private and public sector partners and investors
  • Tailored instruments to help partners build a track-record to leverage second-stage finance

How do we select our portfolio enterprises?

Shell Foundation spends extensive time in market to identify access to energy opportunities that will deliver a meaningful lift in living income for our target customer groups

We then carefully select enterprise partners with:

  • A shared vision for scale and sustainability
  • A track-record in emerging markets
  • Entrepreneurial flair
  • Aligned and embedded DE&I commitments and good practices
  • The necessary management skills and expertise to build a global business

2. Forging scaling partnerships

In order to impact millions of our target customers over the next 10 years, we seek to work with companies already serving them today. We partner with large, established manufacturers, distributors and businesses across the value-chain – supporting them to rapidly test, adopt and commercialise energy access solutions and to remove barriers to scale. 
 

Two men talking in a muddy field

What is 'high touch business support'?

We use a combination of business and development thinking to provide our portfolio with strategic guidance and support. Our early-stage grant funding and management support helps pioneers:

  • Refine business models
  • Develop their customer offering and expand their customer base
  • Recruit world-class talent
  • Develop global systems and processes
  • Strengthen supply chains
  • Agree performance metrics to track impact, growth and financial sustainability

Strategic Partnerships

Several ongoing partnerships with the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), USAID, Power Africa & the African Development Bank are driving access to energy and transport solutions around the world.

See SF's strategic partners