We Invest Early In Young Lives & inventive ideas.
We Invest Early In Young Lives & inventive ideas.
Because the earliest years forge the foundation for the future
Visit South Africa’s official Covid-19 Resource Portal here.
Innovation Edge is an innovation catalyst and social impact investor.
We take a hands-on approach to supporting unconventional ideas that aim to transform early life experiences for children, aged 0 to 6, living in poverty.
Our Approach.
We act as a catalytic connector and provide financial, strategic and implementation support to individuals, non-profit and for profit organisations from any field of expertise, to effect meaningful change for young children.
Our Focus Areas.
Our investment areas are focused on enabling the type of early life experiences that children need to thrive
Daily Brain-Building Interactions
A child who has daily brain-building interactions right from birth develops strong learning foundations
Quality Preschool Programmes
A child who attends a quality preschool programme
for at least 2 years performs better at school
Early Health Care & Nutrition
A child who receives nourishing food and good healthcare is able to grow to their full potential
Safety and Protection
A child who feels safe and is protected from toxic levels of stress is free to thrive
Our featured investments.
With social impact as our primary concern, all of our investments yield a social return related to one or more of our focus areas.
We use a number of investment instruments including grants, convertible loans and equity investments.
Latest news & resources.
The Year for Early Learning and Childcare: Covid-19 Insights
This article was originally published by Keya Lamba from the Early Insights team. This is an introduction of a four article series in early learning and childcare post-Covid-19. In late 2020 Innovation Edge shared their COVID-19 learnings with the Early Insights team....
WhatsApp Business app | A game-changer for small organisations
With over 38 million South African users and 1.8 billion global users, WhatsApp has become the go-to platform to reach and connect with any audience. The app is used by 90% of internet users within SA and works on both smartphones and feature phones, making it...
Up to 30,000 ECD operators could close as a result of Covid-19
Two weeks ago, ilifa Labantwana asked ECD operators to participate in a survey to understand the impact of the lockdown on their operations and future sustainability. The response was overwhelming with close to 8500 responses, 65% of them coming in the first four...
Innovation Edge Covid-19 Early Childhood Rapid Response Fund.
We launched a two million rand Rapid Response Fund aimed at supporting organisations that are undertaking extraordinary measures, as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, to safeguard South African children and their caregivers.
Our Investors.
