Nigerian grant intelligence firm Grant Master has launched an artificial intelligence platform designed to help African nonprofits, startups and social enterprises find funding opportunities and prepare grant proposals faster.
The new platform, called Grant Wizard, comes after organisations trained or supported by Grant Master collectively secured more than $30 million in grant funding, the company said in a statement made available to BusinessDay.
Grant Master said the platform aims to reduce one of the biggest challenges many organisations across Africa face when applying for grants, the time, cost and complexity of writing competitive proposals.
Preparing a single grant application can take up to 40 hours and often requires professional grant writers, which many early-stage organisations cannot afford, the company said.
Read also: SezaPro: Female-Led Startup Digitizing Construction Procurement in Nigeria
Grant Wizard allows users to create a profile describing their mission, programmes and impact areas. The system then scans thousands of grant opportunities and identifies those that match the organisation’s sector, geography and eligibility criteria.
Once a user selects a funding opportunity, the platform analyses the funder’s requirements and generates a structured proposal draft that can be reviewed, edited and exported for submission.
“Across Africa, we see incredible ideas and impactful organisations that struggle to access funding simply because the grant application process is complex and resource-intensive,” said Olugbenga Ogunbowale, chief executive and co-founder of Grant Master.
He said the platform combines artificial intelligence with insights gathered from the company’s training and advisory programmes.
Grant Master said more than 1,100 alumni and client organisations have gone through its programmes and collectively secured over $30 million in grants.
Read also: NSIA, JICA set to launch $50m fund for Nigerian startups
One of those organisations is Crop2Cash, a Nigerian agritech company that secured $400,000 in grant funding using Grant Master’s methodology.
“Access to the right grant intelligence can make a significant difference for growing organisations. Tools like Grant Wizard can help more African founders and nonprofits compete effectively for global funding,” said Michael Ogundare, CEO of Crop2Cash.
Grant Wizard launches with three subscription plans, including a free tier with limited proposal credits and paid plans designed for organisations that apply for grants regularly.
Founded in Ibadan, southwestern Nigeria, Grant Master is backed by the Mastercard Foundation and the United States African Development Foundation (USADF). The company said its long-term goal is to build one of Africa’s most comprehensive grant opportunity engines to help organisations identify suitable funding and submit stronger applications.
