Co-Investment for Business Resilience (RFA-IBR-002) - CLOSED

Apr 30

Reference Number: RFA-IBR-002

Grant Process: One Stage

Issuance Date: May 30, 2024

Application Due Date: July 12, 2024, 23:59, Kyiv time.

Closing Date for Online Questions: June 18, 2024

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Written answers to questions received via this website will be published on a rolling basis. Please continually review this site for the most up-to-date information.

Register for Applicant Conference or Training: USAID IBR staff will hold two online applicant conferences to present information from this RFA about Grant Type A and Grant Type B. The conference dates are:

June 6, 2024 at 11:00 Kyiv time
June 7, 2024 at 11:00 Kyiv time

To register for one or both sessions, please use the link provided above. IBR will share any training material via this website once the information becomes available. Please continually review this site for the most up-to-date information.

Training: Following the conference, IBR will also offer applicants the opportunity to participate in a training session by grant type that will provide detailed information on how to complete the application annexes. Please register for the applicant training at this link. After this training, no further questions will be answered. IBR will share any training material via this website once the information becomes available. Please continually review this site for the most up-to-date information.

Introduction: RFA-IBR-002 is issued as a public notice to all private financial intermediaries (FIs), including banks and non-banks, private transaction advisors, angel/venture/impact/private equity funds, as well as non-financial firms that provide or facilitate finance to enterprises, such as financial technology companies (fintechs), input providers and suppliers legally registered in Ukraine. To be considered for one or more awards, applicants must respond to the submission requirements for each grant type. Applicants must download the RFA-IBR-002 to understand the full requirements in preparing an application response. Failure to do so may result in an incomplete application.

Funding Availability: IBR is prepared to provide up to $25 million in grant funding to unlock investment in Ukrainian businesses through co-financing partnerships with private FIs. IBR is seeking applications from private FIs—also referred to as ‘applicants’ in this RFA—with a large and diverse portfolio of enterprise clients and the financial and operational resources to identify, evaluate and provide or facilitate co-investment in eligible enterprises that have a high potential to increase sales, including exports, and jobs. This total funding availability has been divided between two grant types: Type A and Type B.

Type A - Grant to FI: IBR seeks innovative grant applications to significantly increase the volume of finance to Ukrainian businesses reflecting war impact levels and regional distribution as described in the RFA. Applications should aim to reduce the constraints on access to finance to Ukrainian businesses, including, but not limited to, reducing the applicant’s costs in serving its clients, reducing the costs of borrowing or insurance to clients, overcoming collateral or other requirements, other uses that address demand or supply constraints accessing finance. These measures should directly result in an increase in financing to businesses. Total funding availability for Type A grants is $10 million. Please read RFA-IBR-002 in full to understand the submission requirements for Type A grants and see Annex 5 which provides examples of Type A grants.

Type B - Partnership with a Private FI to Provide Co-Investment to SMEs: The purpose of this grant is to create a partnership with a private FI to provide co-investment to Ukrainian SMEs, primarily war-affected. IBR seeks partnerships in which FIs co-finance SMEs in need of financing, blending a loan from the FI and a grant from IBR to the SME. Ideally, IBR seeks at least a 1:1 leverage, where the amount of the FI loan is at least 1 time the amount of the SME grant. IBR will favorably review applicants that provide a greater, more competitive leverage. Awardees of Type B grants shall bring at minimum 50 new or existing SME clients to the partnership with IBR in alignment with its goals. Under this partnership, the FI recipient may receive a grant of up to $100,000 to partially cover costs related to the onboarding, due diligence and monitoring of SME co-financing. The payment of the grant will be based on the number of SME clients that the FI partner successfully onboards for IBR for co-investment grants and monitors over the life cycle of the SME’s grant. Total funding availability for Type B Grants is $500,000 with $14.5 million reserved for grants made directly to Ukrainian business as co-investment to the FI partners’ loans. Please read RFA-IBR-002 in full to understand the complete submission requirements for Type B grants. Please note that Ukrainian business will need to apply separately to be considered eligible for award of the $14.5 million ‘set aside’.

How to Apply?:

Download, review, and understand RFA-IBR-002 in its entirety.
Familiarize yourself with the grant type you wish to apply to.
Make sure your company meets the full eligibility criteria for the grant type(s) selected.
Use the link(s) below to complete the application for each grant type.
Applicants must submit an application for each grant type.
Respond in full to the submission requirements outlined in the RFA for the grant type selected.
Incomplete applications will not be reviewed or evaluated.
Be sure to attach Annexes 1, 2, 4, 6, and 7, with your application (Annex 6 only applies to Opportunity B).
Give yourself enough time to complete the application form.
Review your application before submitting.
Submit the application.

The online forms will not accept late submissions and emailed applications will not be reviewed. Applications cannot be edited once they are submitted. Please carefully review your application(s) before submitting.

If you experience technical difficulties with the online application form, please email IBR_grants@dai.com. Please allow for at least 48 hours to receive a response. To avoid errors or submission difficulties, please do not wait until the last minute to submit your application.