New AVPN USD 3M Sustainability Seed Fund, with support from Google.org and Asian Development Bank, launched to combat climate change and drive sustainability through technology

Catalyzed by AVPN with support from Google.org in partnership with Asian Development Bank (ADB), the funding will support innovative tech-driven solutions championed by nonprofit organizations in Asia Pacific

Key Message:

• More than 57 million people in Asia were severely affected by climate-related disasters during 2021
• This USD 3M Seed Fund will support nonprofit organizations across Asia in combating climate change

DENPASAR, Indonesia, June 21, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Asia has faced some of the harshest effects of climate change globally. Last year, more than 57 million people in the region were severely affected by climate-related disasters. This priority for climate action has led AVPN, the world's largest network of social investors in Asia, to launch the APAC Sustainability Seed Fund.

This USD3M fund has been made possible through the support of Google.org, Google's philanthropic arm, and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) as a Strategic and Outreach partner of the Fund. The fund will provide support to non-profit organizations in 11 markets that are using technology-based solutions to combat climate change and drive sustainability. The markets include Australia, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Michaela Browning, Google Vice President of Government Affairs and Public Policy for Asia Pacific said, "This initiative is an opportunity for public and private organizations to come together in the shared responsibility to work towards climate and sustainability solutions. We're excited by the possibilities of using technology, including many of our own tools and platforms, to build scalable and impactful solutions that help tackle the threats presented by climate change. Working in close partnership with AVPN and ADB, we look forward to supporting non-profits that are working on promising technology-based solutions, to help them to scale these and take them to the next level.

The announcement was made at the AVPN Global Conference happening in Bali, the world's largest networking event for Social Investors in Asia. The output of the convening will be added to the main agenda of the upcoming G20.

"Sustainability is at the core of AVPN's mission, which is why this landmark fund, made possible with support from Google.org and ADB, brings us closer to our vision of moving more capital towards impact. This fund is part of our wider efforts with the AVPN Climate Action Platform, which has now facilitated over 55 climate-related deals with a total value of USD 75 million+ on the platform," explained Naina Subberwal Batra as the CEO of AVPN during the conference.

Greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) are set to increase as the economy recovers post-pandemic, with a drastic change in global consumption patterns and an increasing need for energy generation that is mainly fossil-based. ADB reported that many countries in Asia Pacific, especially low lying and small island countries, are extremely vulnerable to disastrous impacts of climate change, such as extreme precipitation events, heat waves, rising sea levels, and loss of biodiversity. This will affect millions of lives in the region, especially marginalized and vulnerable communities who are most impacted by climate change.

With the need of US1.3T green financing in Southeast Asia alone, clearly, there is a huge funding gap for climate action and sustainability efforts particularly in the Asia Pacific. Through this APAC Sustainability Seed Fund, AVPN aims to open a floodgate of urgently needed financing to address sustainable development.

Application to the APAC Sustainability Fund will open in November 2022 until January 2023 and the grantees will be selected through an online application process. AVPN will hold a series of information sessions between July until December 2022 to further explain about the funds, selection criteria and to answer any questions raised by interested parties.

The selected grantees will not only receive a cash grant that they can use to scale up their innovative solutions in sustainability, but also will gain access to Google's technology and Google volunteers.

To find out more about the APAC Sustainability Fund, please visit https://avpn.asia/philanthropic-fund/apac-sustainability-seed-fund/

About AVPN

AVPN is the world's largest network of Social Investors in Asia, with over 600+ diverse members across 33 markets. Their mission is to close the SDG gaps in Asia, by enabling their members to increase the flow of financial, human, and intellectual capital towards impact. Through sharing knowledge and innovating collaborations between policy makers, family offices, foundations and the private sector, AVPN improves the effectiveness of capital deployed; bringing to bear the local field needs, regional expertise, and policy insights.

As organizers of the AVPN Global conference—the world's largest networking event for Social Investors in Asia—their focus is to put Asian voices at the forefront of global discourse; with the output of the convening to be added to the main agenda of the upcoming G20. The event is also leveraged by the Social Investor ecosystem to form and announce new partnerships, innovate catalytic funding vehicles, and share best practices that ultimately move more capital towards impact.

About Google.Org

Google.org, the philanthropic arm of Google, supports nonprofits that innovate to address humanitarian issues. Google.org was created to pursue, experiment with, and build upon ideas to improve the world, and continues to take an iterative approach to philanthropy today.

Google.org develops and invests in pursuits that can have measurable impact on local, regional and global issues, and rallies Google's people in support of these efforts with a singular goal of creating a better world, faster. At Google.org we seek out and support people who are innovating and using technology to combat the world's biggest challenges.

We help nonprofits accelerate and scale by investing in their vision, we rally our employees and mobilize their skills to help our grantees realize their projects, and we always aim to give the best of Google to our grantees. That includes both financial resources + Google resources (Cash + Google). Around the world, Google.org donated over $100 million in grants, $1 billion in technology resources, and 200,000+ hours of Googler volunteering to nonprofits in 2015 alone.

About Asian Development Bank (ADB)

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) envisions a prosperous, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable Asia and the Pacific, while sustaining its efforts to eradicate extreme poverty in the region. Despite the region's many successes, it remains home to a large share of the world's poor: 263 million living on less than $1.90 a day and 1.1 billion on less than $3.20 a day.

ADB assists its members, and partners, by providing loans, technical assistance, grants, and equity investments to promote social and economic development.

ADB maximizes the development impact of its assistance by facilitating policy dialogues, providing advisory services, and mobilizing financial resources through cofinancing operations that tap official, commercial, and export credit sources.