The GSMA has unveiled a new fund to ensure low-and-middle-income countries (LMICs) aren’t left behind when it comes to harnessing technologies like the IoT and AI.
In collaboration with the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), the ‘Innovation Fund for Impactful AI’ will empower small and emerging enterprises in Africa, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific to develop solutions that drive socio-economic progress and climate resilience.
The fund’s ambition is to harness the transformative potential of emerging technologies like AI and IoT to address local challenges while promoting sustainability and inclusivity. It offers much-needed financial and technical support to foster innovation tailored specifically to LMICs, where adoption of such technologies has, until now, lagged behind wealthier nations.
A GSMA fund to drive change with technology
The GSMA fund plans to deploy grants ranging between £100,000 and £250,000 to selected enterprises over a 15- to 18-month period. Recipients will also gain from an array of tailored support, aimed at accelerating enterprise growth and ensuring scalability.
Highlights include:
- Capacity building: Startups will access bootcamps, learning exchanges, and global industry events such as MWC to develop their technical and operational expertise.
- Partnership opportunities: Selected firms will get help in connecting with mobile network operators, attracting investors, and building scalable business models.
- Impact monitoring: Enterprises will receive guidance on measuring the socio-economic and climate impacts of their initiatives.
Max Cuvellier Giacomelli, the GSMA’s Head of Mobile for Development, said: “AI and emerging technologies have immense potential to tackle global challenges, but much of their development has focused on advanced markets, leaving a gap in the solutions designed for and by communities in LMICs.
“The GSMA Innovation Fund for Impactful AI seeks to change this by empowering enterprises in these regions to harness AI for transformative, inclusive, and sustainable development where it is needed most.”
The GSMA’s fund also highlights the growing role of IoT in catalysing progress in LMICs. By integrating IoT technology into AI ecosystems, these solutions can enrich datasets, improve decision-making, reduce resource wastage, and allow real-time responses to pressing issues like climate risks and healthcare delivery.
AI, IoT, and mobile big data have already made tremendous strides in developed markets, but their penetration into LMICs remains limited.
The GSMA’s fund aims to accelerate adoption in these regions by:
- De-risking innovation: Offering support to cut-edge solutions that specifically target low-income and vulnerable communities.
- Strengthening resilience: Encouraging sustainable and scalable AI-driven projects through local collaborations.
- Showcasing potential: Promoting awareness of AI’s transformative role in tackling local challenges and creating lasting change.
Diverse challenges, local solutions
The fund will prioritise AI and IoT-driven projects addressing a spectrum of sectors including healthcare, education, financial services, and climate adaptation. By responding to the unique context of LMICs, the initiative aims to unlock solutions with measurable impact.
Eligible projects must meet the following criteria:
- Leverage technologies such as predictive or generative AI, IoT, blockchain, or mobile big data.
- Deliver tangible socioeconomic or climate benefits to low-income communities.
- Demonstrate clear pathways to sustainability and scalability, especially by fostering local partnerships.
Recognising persistent underrepresentation and inequalities, the fund will place emphasis on enterprises that are female-founded or female-led and explicitly address gender inequities.
By amplifying the role of locally-led organisations, this initiative aims to foster regional leadership and deliver sustainable, community-driven impacts. By targeting underserved markets that have often been sidelined in previous tech revolutions, the GSMA is not only aiming to unlock innovation but to ensure it delivers widespread progress.
(Photo by Florian Berger)
See also: IoT in 2025: Digital twins, mesh networks, VR, and more
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