ACT Grants

ACT Grants is sponsored by ACT Capital Foundation For Social Impact. ACT provides seed capital to incubate and accelerate innovations that address complex social needs in India, focusing on sustainable organizations and shifting life outcomes. They also offer strategic and operational support and mentorship.

ACT I An Indian non-profit venture philanthropy platform Your browser does not support the video tag. “Never doubt that a group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. It is the only thing that ever has.

” As a non-profit tech-led venture philanthropy platform, ACT is built upon the premise that an entrepreneurial mindset, technology & innovation and collective action have the power to create meaningful social impact at scale. We are driven by a bias for action to catalyse social change through collaboration across the board – startup founders, VCs, industry experts, NGOs, government stakeholders as well as the public at large.

Our work is driven by a 3 pronged approach: Providing hard-to-find, early stage risk capital to take long-term bets and additionally supporting portfolio founders in mobilising follow-on capital. Leveraging ACT’s unique network to enable network connections and curate targeted, high value mentorship opportunities for portfolio founders.

Building collaborative platforms and programs that bring together multiple partners around specific, more pervasive problem statements. Our grants are given as seed capital to incubate and accelerate innovations that have demonstrated ability to address some of India’s most complex social needs.

In addition to providing funding, we work with our grantees on their strategy as well as operations and help them harness the strength of our collective – through best-in-class industry mentorship that can enable them to build sustainable organisations. Essentially we treat each grant as an investment in India’s future and thus, focus on ensuring that it yields a return by meaningfully shifting life outcomes.

Know More About Our Approach Enabling the bottom three quartiles of India’s population to learn at home by harnessing the power of affordable, accessible and high-quality ed-tech interventions. Catalyzing climate action through innovations to support India’s progress on accelerating decarbonisation and ensuring water security.

Empowering cutting edge solutions that bridge the access and affordability gap on primary care, NCDs, TB, and mental health. Aims to accelerate India’s progress in female workforce participation through data, tech-led platforms and collaboration.

Our Community Is Our Superpower With the trust and goodwill we earned through our work during COVID, we’ve been able to leverage an incredibly unique and valuable network of individuals and organisations to power our This is just a snapshot of our ever growing collective - as we journey ahead, we hope to inspire more such individuals & organisations to deeply engage with us as partners, advisors & Our proof of concept is embedded in the incredible impact achieved by the 58 entrepreneurs we’ve supported in 2024-25.

From reaching around 2 Mn individuals during the pandemic to 30 Mn by Mar 2025, with 85% belonging to India 3 39 of our portfolio founders raised additional external capital as their solutions started to demonstrate tangible impact 36 of our portfolio organisations gained prestigious national & international recognition for the efficacy of their solutions 26 of our portfolio organisations cracked government partnerships to unlock further scale and sustainability Latest Updates From The ACT Collective Progress as on 31st March ACT For Women launches the Women in India's Startup Ecosystem Report (WISER) WISER is the first and largest of its kind collaborative report on women in startups.

ACT’s Tech Advisors For Social Change brings its second cohort on board A 3-4 month volunteering program for tech experts to contribute their time and expertise to social impact organisations, Tech Advisors For Social Change promises to be an inspiring collaboration!

ACT For Health kicks off the ACT Implementers Network The network aims to match the tech needs of social enterprises working among underserved communities with ACT supported innovations and launching pilot projects to address identified need gaps. ACT For Environment & BCG launch the Green Startup Pledge (GSP) The world’s first climate pledge designed exclusively for startups and in alignment with UN’s ‘net zero by 2050’ goals’.

What Our Portfolio Founders Have To Say Co-Founder - Rocket Learning (ACT For Education) “The ACT team is a team of doers - they operate from a founder's PoV and not from a funder's PoV. They've guided us with their technical expertise, connected us to other founders and evolved our thinking on the scale of impact.

As founders, we constantly feel looked out for and know that our requirements & challenges are always a priority for ACT” Co-Founder - Farmers For Forests (ACT For Environment) "ACT For Environment has been a source of tremendous support for us - from connecting us to relevant stakeholders in the ecosystem to spending large amounts of time helping us refine our financial models and organisational strategy.

In ACT, we have a great partner - one that we feel comfortable reaching out to for help on nearly anything!" Co-Founder - Indra Water (ACT For Environment) “ACT has catalyzed Indra’s journey towards unlocking greater commercial traction. Their grant enabled faster product iterations and early deployments, while their hands-on mentorship sharpened our go-to-market strategies, governance, and impact measurement.

ACT opened doors to new customer engagements, media spotlight, and a generous peer community that amplified our credibility and accelerated the adoption of our solution. Their team brought us the right experts at the right time and tailored their support to match each founder’s needs. We, at Indra, are grateful for the fantastic platform they’ve built and are proud to be a part of it."

Co-Founder - Cancrie (ACT For Environment) “ACT has been a true partner in every sense. From our very first interaction early on in our journey, their support has been consistent, thoughtful, and impactful. They've helped us across the board - from refining our pricing strategy and providing financial support, to opening doors through their network and simply being there whenever we faced a challenge.

ACT has genuinely felt like an extension of the Cancrie team. We're grateful for their commitment and for the vibrant ecosystem they’re building and nurturing. ” Co-Founder - Karya (ACT For Education) “The ACT team has been among the most incredible supporters of Karya in our journey.

From constantly connecting us to the most special mentors to giving us guidance on how we can do better, ACT has pushed to be a more impactful organisation. I am so grateful to the team for their mentorship, their kindness and all their wisdom. ” Co-Founder - Khushi Baby (ACT For Health) “ACT For Health was one of our earliest champions from India.

Their catalytic funding enabled us to rapidly scale our digital health platform to two additional states within a year. But more than capital, the ACT team has brought deep alignment, asking the right questions, immersing themselves in our field operations, and engaging as true thought partners.

They understand that solving for last-mile health systems is long-term work - and they have stood by us with conviction, flexibility, and an entrepreneurial spirit. We are proud to have ACT by our side as we digitize rural health systems and reduce the burdens of community health workers across Bharat.

” Co-Founder - Wysa (ACT For Health) The ACT team’s support was integral in developing Wysa Hindi, our stepping stone into impact work – increasing access to mental health care for India’s underserved communities. This partnership has encouraged us to be more ambitious in our efforts to bring world-class AI to low-resource settings for universal wellbeing and resilience.

Their strategic guidance, inputs, and networks have been invaluable, not only helped us do better in our own domain but also helped broaden our understanding of space and opening doors to useful conversations. With their patient support, we are now identifying a pathway for our impact operations to scale while sustaining quality.

ACT Capital Foundation For Social Impact is a not-for-profit company incorporated and registered under Section 8 of the Companies Act, 2013 (CIN: U85300KA2021NPL148543). All donations made to ACT Capital Foundation are eligible for income tax deduction under Section 80G of the Income Tax Act.