Digital grant delivery to financially vulnerable users
Lead Participant:
LIGHTNING SOCIAL VENTURES LTD
Abstract
To address the economic impact caused by COVID-19, our project will enable financially vulnerable people and organisations to receive instant support from grant providers, recover from shocks and build financial resilience for the future. This will be done by providing an end-to-end solution for grant delivery from application to payout and post-payment insights, which will challenge existing norms and eliminate friction for institutions in the aid distribution sector. Our innovation offers several unique advantages in comparison to traditional grant administration and payout systems: speed, transparency, security and data-driven insights.
The project is a collaboration between two organisations:
* Lightning Social Ventures, a female-founded early stage mission-driven FinTech startup which will manage product development, testing and operations.
* Do IT, the UK's leading volunteering and social wellbeing platform, which will focus on go-to-market partnerships and impact evaluation with its strong institutional network
Our initial focus will be on facilitating the transfer of funds within the UK, from grant-providing institutions to financially vulnerable individuals or organisations who require support as a result of the economic situation. In the longer term, we plan to expand globally, including markets such as international development aid.Within the UK, our customers are the institutions providing the financial support necessary for the financially vulnerable people and organisations. These grant-giving institutions include charities, local authorities, industry associations and national government bodies. Our potential end-user beneficiaries fall within the c.23M financially vulnerable (low income, low saving) group of individuals and small business owners who may be in need of support.We have already developed strong relationships with multiple grant-providing institutions, which we plan to test and launch our solution with locally over the course of this project. Beyond this, the project also has vast potential for future international expansion given the global nature and scale of the challenge we plan to tackle.
The project is a collaboration between two organisations:
* Lightning Social Ventures, a female-founded early stage mission-driven FinTech startup which will manage product development, testing and operations.
* Do IT, the UK's leading volunteering and social wellbeing platform, which will focus on go-to-market partnerships and impact evaluation with its strong institutional network
Our initial focus will be on facilitating the transfer of funds within the UK, from grant-providing institutions to financially vulnerable individuals or organisations who require support as a result of the economic situation. In the longer term, we plan to expand globally, including markets such as international development aid.Within the UK, our customers are the institutions providing the financial support necessary for the financially vulnerable people and organisations. These grant-giving institutions include charities, local authorities, industry associations and national government bodies. Our potential end-user beneficiaries fall within the c.23M financially vulnerable (low income, low saving) group of individuals and small business owners who may be in need of support.We have already developed strong relationships with multiple grant-providing institutions, which we plan to test and launch our solution with locally over the course of this project. Beyond this, the project also has vast potential for future international expansion given the global nature and scale of the challenge we plan to tackle.
Lead Participant | Project Cost | Grant Offer |
|---|---|---|
| LIGHTNING SOCIAL VENTURES LTD | £240,803 | £ 151,899 |
Participant |
||
| DO IT SERVICES LTD | £220,937 | £ 161,545 |
People |
ORCID iD |
| Ren Hooi (Project Manager) |