Nine medium-sized Jamaican Companies awarded grant funding for Innovation as the DBJ Boosting Innovation Growth & Entrepreneurship Ecosystems

The Development Bank of Jamaica (DBJ) on Monday, January 30, 2023, signed Agreements and awarded grants to nine (9) medium-sized Jamaican companies under its Innovation Grant Fund (IGF), a product financed by the Boosting Innovation Growth and Entrepreneurship Ecosystems (BIGEE) programme. This is in addition to three (3) innovation grants announced in 2021.

Speaking at the signing ceremony, Anthony Shaw, Managing Director, Development Bank of Jamaica, stated, “Looking at the profiles of the companies represented here today, it is indeed a pleasure to be supporting innovative ideas by these nine (9) companies representing multiple sectors – environmental, educational, medical, manufacturing and agro-processing, legal and information technology. Importantly, these businesses are not based solely in Kingston. This is aligned with our thrust to increase our support to businesses across the island.

The nine (9) companies awarded grants were; Innovate 10X, Innovera Limited, Environmental Solution Limited, THE UCC Academy, PeterMc & Associates, 1920 Investments Limited T/A Haughton’s Pharmacy, Shavuot International Holdings Company, One on One Educational Services, and Cantina Eateries T/A Chilitos JaMexican. Previous awards were made to Bare Nutrition, Sherwood Coffee Company, Intermed Company T/A Windward Road Medical Complex.
The total value of grants awarded under the IGF to date is J$190 million.
In announcing the nine awardees Christopher Brown, BIGEE Programme Manager stated, “We have now awarded grants to 12 companies under the Innovation Grant Fund product and are desirous of encouraging more investment in research, development and innovation by the business sector. This IGF product aims is to assist our medium companies grow to large companies using innovation projects to fuel this growth.”
We will be issuing our 3rd public call for innovation projects under the IGF in March 2023 and we are targeting an additional six (6) projects for 2023. This call for projects will have specific focus on projects with positive environmental and social impact as well as those led by our female entrepreneurs.

The Innovation Grant Fund was developed to support innovation and growth in established medium-size companies in Jamaica. The Fund is designed to increase revenue streams of medium-sized enterprises with an innovative focus that can result in the introduction of new products, improved productivity or processes. BIGEE has allocated US$2.7M or approximately J$400M to finance the execution of IGF projects from 2020 to 2025.

BIGEE is the DBJ’s project that is being implemented to ensure a robust and sustained entrepreneurial ecosystem in Jamaica and is funded through a US$25 million loan agreement signed between the Government of Jamaica (GoJ) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in 2019. The project, in 2021, received a non-reimbursable US$8.2 million grant from the European Union (EU).