Enviu has spent 20 years ideating, validating, and building impact-driven ventures. Our mission? To address the world’s most pressing problems—like the plastics crisis, food waste, and environmental damage caused by fast fashion and shipping—by changing the systems that sustain these dysfunctional markets. A cornerstone of our success has been securing programmatic funding (or ‘thematic funding’), a crucial element in helping us drive systemic change.
So, what’s the biggest roadblock to reaching our impact goals? Honestly, it’s the way funding works. Funding sometimes stems from foundations with strict rules or traditional investors who want fast financial returns. This setup makes it hard for us to test, learn, and adapt—important steps we need to build ventures that can change whole systems.
Programmatic Funding: The Key to Unlocking Impactful Solutions
Luckily, we have several great partners who provide Enviu this kind of funding.
Programmatic funding lets us get creative, experiment, and try out new ideas—without the stress of delivering quick financial wins. These programs act like pipelines for multiple ventures, giving us room to focus on impact. Our forward-thinking funders love this approach because it allows them to back meaningful social enterprises without the risks that come with investing directly in individual ventures.
The success of this model is already evident. Through programmatic funding, we’ve set up a pipeline of impactful ventures that are positioned to drive real change across sectors.
One example is SokoFresh, a cold-storage-as-a-service venture developed through our Enviu Agrifood program. It’s part of a pipeline of four ventures in various stages of development, all aimed at reducing food waste and promoting sustainable supply chains.
What Makes Programmatic Funding So Effective?
Programmatic funding stands out because it provides capital that is patient, flexible, and willing to accept higher risks. Unlike traditional project funding, which often imposes strict timelines and deliverables, this type of capital understands that building impactful ventures is a learning process that may take several years. Convertible grants and patient investments—where returns are not expected for five years or more—are common forms of this funding.
This flexibility is essential. By allowing time for ventures to pivot and evolve, programmatic funding gives us the space to develop solutions that can create lasting impact. A great example of this is Three Wheels United, a venture originally aimed at building electric rickshaws. With the room to learn and pivot, it transformed into a financier, making electric vehicles more accessible. The result? A venture that’s making a significant impact in the clean transportation sector.
Why Programmatic Funding Works for Funders Too
For funders, programmatic funding is a smart and lasting investment. The ventures we build will keep creating positive change long after the program wraps up. While funding a program might seem like a big ask, it’s actually one of the best ways to ensure long-term impact. The ventures launched from these programs keep growing and driving change for years, causing a catalytic effect. In fact, SokoFresh is a textbook example of one of these ventures, which is currently working its way up to Series A Funding.
Plus, it lowers the risk. Instead of betting on one venture, funders support a whole portfolio at different stages in the value chain. This approach boosts the odds of system-wide change, as these ventures work together to tackle different parts of the problem, making the overall impact much bigger.
Lessons from the Programmatic Approach
Our biggest learning comes from trying to force-fit traditional funding models into our programmatic approach, which led to misaligned expectations and pressures. On the flip side, when we collaborate with funders who understand and align with our goals, the results are remarkable.
For instance, through our Enviu Mobility program (which focuses on creating sustainable, efficient urban transport solutions to reduce environmental impact), our funders have given us the time and space to work on multiple game-changing solutions. Instead of rushing to market with a single innovation, Enviu has been able to take a holistic approach that will ultimately deliver deeper, more sustainable change.
The Future of Programmatic Funding
The future of programmatic funding looks super promising, but we need more funders to hop on board and back this game-changing model. With more collaboration, we can scale our ventures faster, create bigger system shifts, and amplify our (joint) impact across sectors.
Right now, we have several great who funders really understand the value of programmatic funding, and the momentum is growing. As more traditional foundations and investors catch on to the benefits, we’re hopeful for a shift towards supporting the bold, pioneering work that’s so essential for building the sustainable solutions the world needs.
With the support of these funders, our programs can keep acting as pipelines, launching innovative ventures and driving the systemic changes needed for a more sustainable future.
