GIZ Innovation Fund

Developing, implementing and rolling out innovative ideas for products, services and business models – that’s the objective of the GIZ Innovation Fund. The companywide ideas competition aims at enhancing our services and improving the impact of our projects.  

The GIZ Innovation Fund is our corporate intrapreneurship programme launched in 2017. All employees around the world are invited every year to tackle a new challenge. 

▶ We provide room, space and resources to experiment and bring innovative ideas to life.

▶ We build capacities in human-centred design, lean start-up and agile working methods.

▶ We encourage cross-departmental, cross-hierarchical collaboration and the establishments of new external partnerships.

Final Pitch 2025

On May 14th the Final Pitch of the GIZ Innovation Fund took place. 

From an initial pool of 73 ideas, six teams emerged to address critical issues such as gender-based violence, improving agricultural sustainability, addressing media literacy in underprivileged regions, tackling high unemployment, expanding access for disability rights, and enhancing technological and scientific discovery in underserved communities. Throughout a ten-month period, the teams dedicated themselves to the development of innovative solutions, concluding their journey at the Final Pitch event. 

• Over 1000 people took part during this event, where each team showcased their high-fidelity prototypes to an expert jury and a global audience. The winnings teams are: 
• Microscopes for everyone (GIZ Innovation Award)
• The CASEMAKER (Audience Award)
• AgriFuture (Most Agile Team Award)

Learn more about 6 teams from the accelerator program and watch the recording of the Final Pitch 2025.

Looking ahead, the winning team of the GIZ Innovation Award will progress to the next stage of the GIZ Innovation Fund process—the Maturation Phase. Over the next seven months, they will receive additional funding by the Business Development Unit (AGE), as well as coaching and support from the Innovation Fund Team to successfully implement their ideas.

The four programme phases of the GIZ Innovation Fund

Through four phases the two most promising teams are identified from hundreds of ideas submitted to implement their ideas in the company.

Call for Ideas

In the first phase of the GIZ Innovation Fund, all employees are invited to submit their ideas.

In the sixth round of the GIZ Innovation Fund, we were looking for innovative ideas that have the potential to become scalable products or services, with a focus on cooperation with new external partners from the private sector, public sector, academia or civil society.

Download the application guide here.

Impact

The Innovation Fund has achieved significant reach and established itself as a central platform for global collaboration and sustainable innovation. A total of 2,217 people participated in the Call for Ideas, resulting in 749 ideas.

The six rounds of the GIZ Innovation Fund supported 36 teams, many of which have already successfully implemented their ideas. In addition, 466 people have been trained in innovation methods to help embed innovative approaches in the organisation.

The international and diverse focus of the Innovation Fund is particularly noteworthy. More than half of the 36 funded teams (56%) in the accelerator phase worked together across national borders. The relevance of the GIZ Innovation Fund in challenging contexts is also evident: Three out of six teams in the current round come from fragile regions such as Palestine, Ukraine and Syria. This underlines the fact that innovation can play a central role even in difficult conditions.

These figures and trends illustrate the importance of the GIZ Innovation Fund as a catalyst for creative solutions, international cooperation and sustainable change.

Want to know more?

In the section below, you can find additional information on successful ideas from former cohorts of the GIZ Innovation Fund. A dynamic insight into the GIZ Innovation Fund is available on YouTube.