Mastercard Innovation Fund Grant

Mastercard Innovation Fund Grant

Status: ACTIVE
Funder: Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth
Amount: US $200,000 - US $250,000
Last Updated: November 05, 2025

Summary

The Mastercard Strive USA 2025 Innovation Fund aims to enhance the financial health of small businesses across the U.S. by providing up to $250,000 in grants to organizations developing innovative solutions. This initiative focuses on addressing challenges such as limited access to financial resources and vulnerability to economic shocks, ultimately fostering resilience and growth within the small business sector.

Overview

Mastercard Strive USA 2025 Innovation Fund Strengthening the financial health of small businesses The Mastercard Strive USA 2025 Innovation Fund, supported by the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth and implemented by DAI, will award grants to organizations that are testing new products and services that improve the financial health of small businesses with high potential for impact and scale. Overview Innovative solutions that improve small business financial health When small businesses flourish, they become engines for inclusive economic growth — creating jobs, driving innovation, and strengthening community resilience. Yet today, half of all new small businesses fail within five years, often because they lack access to affordable financial services, tools to build savings, or protection against rising digital threats, among other challenges. A financially healthy small business — where daily systems free up capacity to build resilience and pursue new opportunities — is better equipped to navigate these challenges. To make financial health more achievable for entrepreneurs across the country, the Mastercard Strive USA 2025 Innovation Fund will award $1 million total in grants — up to $250,000 per organization — to support early-stage solutions that help small businesses simplify daily operations, reduce complexity, and enable small businesses to thrive rather than just survive. This opportunity helps innovative small business support organizations to grow their next big idea. What problems do we want to solve? Barriers to financial health limit entrepreneurs from realizing the full potential of their businesses. Key challenges we want to address through this fund include: Hard-to-understand finances. Many entrepreneurs have limited visibility into their financial position and often rely on manual processes that are time-consuming, error-prone, and reactive.Vulnerability to shocks. Most small businesses lack early warning systems or planning tools to anticipate economic downturns, supply chain disruptions, natural disasters, and other unexpected expenses.Limited access to growth resources. Even profitable businesses often struggle to access capital, identify their strongest opportunities, or optimize operations for sustainable scaling. Barriers to financial health are interconnected — weak daily financial management makes businesses more vulnerable to shocks, while both limit growth. We are seeking innovations that break this cycle and create positive feedback loops toward financial health.

Eligibility

You can learn more about this opportunity by visiting the funder's website. Proposed projects must:Target U.S. small businesses as customers or end usersBe implemented in the U.S.Solve critical and systemic challenges to small business financial healthMust be in the prototyping or early testing phase; solutions may be piloted with users but should not yet be deployed at scale.Includes a digital tool or platform (not solely training or mentorship)Organizational eligibilityThe Mastercard Strive USA 2025 Innovation Fund is open to any organization developing innovations for small business financial health including nonprofits, CDFIs, credit unions, universities, and for-profit companies that is registered in the U.S. We will also encourage applications from coalitions of partners working on a specific financial health innovation (e.g., a fintech-CDFI partnership).All applicants must demonstrate a clear commitment to public benefit by selecting one or more of the following pathways:Pathway 1: Mission-Driven Implementation. The applicant either operates as a mission-driven organization (nonprofit, CDFI, credit union, university) OR partners with such an organization to co-develop, implement, or distribute the innovation to serve their constituencies.Pathway 2: Open Source Development. The applicant will release all or core components of the technology, algorithms, and methodologies under open source licenses (such as Apache 2.0, MIT, or GPL) that allow free use, modification, and distribution by others in the ecosystem.Pathway 3: Public Benefit Licensing. The applicant commits to licensing the innovation at cost or for free to nonprofits, CDFIs, and organizations focused specifically on serving low-to-moderate income small businesses.Pathway 4: Alternative Public Benefit Approach. The applicant proposes an alternative pathway that ensures meaningful public benefit and broad ecosystem access. Proposals must be specific and measurable as well as demonstrate comparable public benefit to the above pathways. Generic commitments to "help small businesses" will not be considered sufficient.Each grant will range between $200,000 and $250,000 depending on the project budget. The grant must be spent over 12-18 months.The funding can be used to cover a wide range of product- or service-related costs, including personnel. Up to 20% of the grant can also be used for overhead.Your grant proposal must focus specifically on small business applications. Adapting existing products for small businesses is eligible if you demonstrate understanding of their unique needs.We want innovations beyond the pure idea stage with some form of working prototype, pilot, or existing implementation that demonstrates real-world validation.Organizations may submit up to 2 applications for different innovations. Each application must represent a distinct solution.

Ineligibility

We recognize the scope of this innovation fund will naturally attract fintechs and other private sector companies developing distinct products for commercial markets. However, grant funds cannot support the development of products intended solely for commercial use.Current and former Strive USA grantees are not eligible to apply for this innovation fund.