DBS Foundation, the first foundation in Singapore dedicated to championing social entrepreneurship, has awarded S$ 1.3 million to 9 social enterprises as part of its 2019 DBS Foundation Social Enterprise Grant Programme. The grant funding will support this year’s awardees from India, Singapore, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia and Taiwan to deploy social innovations in areas such as healthcare, nutrition, employability and income generation, education, energy, environment protection and waste management. The Programme had received a record 600 applications from SEs across Asia this year and the final 9 social entrepreneurs were selected based on rigorous criteria including the ability to address social needs, innovation, as well as the sustainability and scalability of their business models. They were also required to demonstrate a path to achieving key business and social impact milestones. The awardees include S4S Technologies from India, a food tech company serving the global dehydrated food market with its patented UN-award winning solar dehydration technology. The enterprise empowers women farmers to earn enhanced incomes through an assured market, by reducing farm level losses and creating value added products. S4S will use the grant to conduct a self-financing pilot with a farmer group in a new geography of India which can be later replicated several times, scaling up impact.
