Collection: COVID-19
Fast-track grants of up to €1m offered to projects tackling effects of COVID-19
New funding is available for projects or startups around the world helping in the fight against the coronavirus – and funders say they can make a decision in a matter of hours after receiving an application.
Applicants can apply for up to €1m from the Action Against Corona initiative, which has been set up by Sweden’s Norrsken Foundation – an independent foundation that backs both for-profit businesses and nonprofit organisations – and finance newspaper Dagens Industri. Partners to date include PwC, Microsoft and law firm White and Case.
Finance will be available in the form of grants initially, while Norrsken Foundation and its €100m venture capital impact fund, launched late last year, will also invest in solutions if there is a combination of impact and underlying profitable business model.
The fund is open to efforts supporting victims of the virus, improving the health care system or otherwise helping the “billions of people whose lives are, or will be, affected” around the world.
Norrsken Foundation CEO Erik Engellau-Nilsson told Pioneers Post there was no fixed limit or sum, and that the total amount awarded would “depend on the quality of applications”.
Those applying for funding will be published on a public list, so that other funding bodies can contact them if Action Against Corona chooses not to fund them. There are also plans for a volunteer platform to match people who want to support organisations working in this field.
The Stockholm-based Norrsken Foundation was set up in 2016 by Niklas Adalbert, who co-founded the Swedish fintech company, Klarna.
Header image: Norrsken House in Stockholm, a hub for entrepreneurs (photo credit: Tove Nordstrom)
