APPLY TO ACT
Could ACT be the right partner for your ambition?
We back bold organisations using innovation to solve India's most pressing challenges and create meaningful impact at scale.
OUR FUNDING APPROACH
What We Fund
Our funding approach is designed to help founders understand whether ACT is the right partner for their stage, ambition and pathway to scale.
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Our Focus Areas
We primarily fund organisations tackling some of India's most pressing challenges across three focus areas. Each has its own priorities, but all are held together by one belief: bold innovation can unlock transformative impact at scale.
Education and Livelihoods
Expanding access to high-quality learning and equipping people with the skills to thrive in a rapidly changing economy.
Health
Strengthening healthcare delivery, expanding access, and enabling more equitable, technology-enabled care.
Environment
Accelerating climate action, strengthening resilience, and enabling a more sustainable future for people and the planet.
In addition, we back bold ideas beyond these three, in areas such as urbanisation, justice delivery, agriculture, and public services. In all of these, we look for approaches that could fundamentally reshape how large social challenges are addressed.
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How We Fund
We partner with organisations through two complementary types of grant, allowing our support to grow with them.
Catalyst Grants
Early Grants for organisations with a promising solution, still building evidence, refining their model and proving a credible pathway to scale.
Momentum Grants
Larger follow-on grants for organisations that have shown strong progress and are ready to accelerate their impact.
As organisations grow, we may deepen a Catalyst partnership into a Momentum grant.
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What We Look For
Every organisation we back is different. The criteria that matter for a cancer screening device aren't the same as those for a life-skills curriculum seeking to transition from pilot to national scale. Rather than apply a fixed checklist, we look at each organisation in the context of its stage, sector and ambition.
Breakthrough Innovation
Ideas that fundamentally rethink how a social challenge can be addressed through technology, novel delivery models, or new ways of working, with the potential not just to solve the problem, but to shift how the sector tackles it.
Meaningful Pathway to Scale
Organisations solving a meaningful problem for the people or institutions they serve, with ambition and plans to gain national salience. This includes clarity on the total addressable universe, ability to reach relevant decision-makers, and price or quality edge over alternatives.
Depth & Credibility of Impact
Organisations with a clear and credible pathway to meaningful impact, demonstrated through evidence, validated approaches, or a well-defined theory of change. We recognise that the strength and maturity of evidence will vary by stage. We prioritise organisations that are clear on what success looks like, how they will build and strengthen evidence over time.
Sustainability and Capital-Efficiency
Models where ACT's capital can unlock disproportionately greater impact through deeper use of technology, improving efficiency at scale, network effects, or additional philanthropic or public funds, enabling population-scale impact even in a resource-constrained environment.
Organisational Readiness
The strength of the founding team, the quality of execution, and the readiness to put larger capital to work responsibly. We back founders who demonstrate ambition, learn fast, adapt thoughtfully, and have the drive to build for lasting impact.
FAQs
Frequently Asked Questions
Who can apply for ACT funding?
We welcome applications from organisations using innovation to solve India's most pressing challenges-across education and livelihoods, health, environment, and adjacent areas such as urbanisation, justice delivery, agriculture, and public services.
What stages of organisations does ACT support?
ACT supports organisations at different stages of maturity-from early teams proving a credible pathway to scale through Catalyst Grants, to organisations that have demonstrated strong progress and are ready to accelerate impact through Momentum Grants.
How does the application process work?
Share your work with us through our application channels. We review each organisation in the context of its stage, sector and ambition against the criteria on this page, then follow up with promising applicants for deeper diligence and partnership conversations.
What is the difference between Catalyst and Momentum grants?
Catalyst Grants are early grants for organisations with a promising solution still building evidence, refining their model, and proving a pathway to scale. Momentum Grants are larger follow-on grants for organisations that have shown strong progress and are ready to accelerate their impact. As organisations grow, we may deepen a Catalyst partnership into a Momentum grant.