Incubator Tool Library

A collection of vetted tools and resources to help impact incubators run smarter, scale bigger, and better support their entrepreneurs.

Pollinate Impact Tool Library

Welcome to your shortcut to the good stuff.

When we say โ€œtoolโ€, we mean anything that helps incubators thriveโ€”software, templates, handbooks, or any resource that lets you level up your game. Weโ€™ve curated the best for impact incubators across the Global South, so skip the search, grab what you need, and get back to making magic happen.ย 

Share your tool! If you have a tool, template, or resource that others could benefit from, submit it for review.ย 

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ENVOY – Making Incubation Management Simple

Envoy is a purpose built incubation and programme management software designed for entrepreneurial support organisations and development finance institutions. It enables ESO’s funders and DFI’s to govern complex incubation portfolios with clarity, confidence and measurable control. It reduces the administrative burden, improves funding oversight, preserves institutional knowledge and delivers credible, real time portfolio management. The result is measurable entrepreneur progression, transparent governance, audit ready reporting and the ability to scale programmes sustainably without sacrifice. Beyond programme management, Envoy also gives entrepreneurs their own free business operating system. This supports them in defveloping their business strategy and managing the execution of both strategy and day to day operations.

Organization: Raizcorp

Lend For Good

LendForGood is a global platform that harnesses the crowd to efficiently provide affordable, connected and engaged capital to meet the funding demands of impact enterprises. Think of LendForGood as a marketplace or as an exchange, where people who want to lend money to impact enterprises can find them, and can find other people to team up with to lend money to impact enterprises. LendForGood provides the information, connections and technology that enables people to do this easily, and at scale.

Organization: LendForGood

Vula Together

Vula connects tens of thousands of African SMEs and Startups to the funding they deserveโ€”fast and easy. Now you can spend less time searching and more time growing.

Organization: Vula.vc

DayTwo

Most entrepreneurs are resourceful, but not always visible, and visibility is the doorway to fundability and investability. ย ONOW’s fintech platform “DayTwo” turns everyday SME behavior, in the form of photos, chat, and voice notes, into clean, dated financial records and lender-ready signals. ESOs use it to see real cash health, coach smarter, and bridge entrepreneurs to capital with less friction.

Organization: ONOW

Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Diagnostic Toolkit

This resource is a practical methodology to understand how entrepreneurship ecosystems work, identify their structural conditions, and guide evidence-based decision-making.

The model provides a clear way to analyze entrepreneurship ecosystems based on their core elements: the eight structural domains, the participation of key actors, the stages of the entrepreneurial journey, and digital maturity as a cross-cutting component. It enables the identification of strengths, gaps, bottlenecks, and opportunities for coordinated action in each territory.

Organization: ANDE

Reimagining the Future of Entrepreneurship Support Organisations in East Africa

The report identifies the interconnected challenges facing entrepreneur support organizations (ESOs), including incubators and accelerators. This WDI report takes a solutions-oriented approach for better serving entrepreneurs, maximizing the impact of limited donor resources, and strengthening the pipeline of investable companies.

Organization: William Davidson Institute

Supporting Waste Management & Circular Economy Innovation

The toolkit brings together lessons from Kenyaโ€™s waste and circular economy ecosystem and global best practices. It is designed to be practical, adaptable, and action-oriented.

  • Clear explanations of waste management and circular economy principles
  • Guidance on designing and running effective support programmes for waste-focused SGBs
  • Real-world case studies from Kenya and beyond
  • Best practices across the full enterprise support journey โ€” from recruitment and programme design to post-programme support and ecosystem engagement
  • Tools and frameworks for measuring environmental, social, and business impact

Organization: ANDE

Application Form Template & Program Information Kit

This is a sample of a program application form for a University based incubator. It also includes clear description of the program, what is included in the program, and the expectations from applicant entrepreneurs.

Organization: Oxford University Innovation

Building Strong Funder Relationships & Navigating Funding Rejections

Every nonprofit leader knows the thrill of submitting a compelling grant proposalโ€”and the sting of receiving a โ€œno.โ€ But what if rejection could be a catalyst for deeper alignment, stronger relationships, and future funding success?

That was the heart of our recent Masterclass hosted on the Catalyst NOW platform, โ€œBuilding Stronger Funder Relationships and Navigating Funding Rejections,โ€ featuring wisdom from sector leaders Tia Hodges, President & CEO, MetLife Foundation, Tanya Jaramilla, Director of Impact & Operations, Julian Grace Foundation, and Natalie Rekstad, Founder & CEO of Black Fox Global.

Organization: Black Fox Global

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Accelerating Women Entrepreneurs – A Handbook for Practitioners

This handbook is an interactive resource for you, whether you want to attract
more women entrepreneurs and/or better support them, want to improve the programme
or learn from the challenges and successes of others, select the right partners to run a programme, new to entrepreneurship support programmes &
womenโ€™s empowerment

Organization: GIZ

ESO Collaborative

This platform is a community resource developed by the ESO Collaborative which brings together government, the Ghana Hubs Network, and other enterprise support organisations. It provides entrepreneurs, startups, businesses, freelancers etc. with extensive details of programmes provided by Enterprise Support Organisations (ESOs) in Ghana.

Organization: Impact Investing Ghana

Academy

The AfriLabs Academy is an initiative of AfriLabs and implemented under the AfriLabs Capacity Building Programme that is designed to equip African Hub managers and staff with the training and management skills needed to improve their ability and capacity to support the growing number of startups and MSMEs in their communities

Organization: Afrilabs

NEX Portfolio

Please find our detailed database of some of our portfolio businesses here. Our aim is to provide more connections and global network opportunities to businesses that have participated in NEX programming as well as offer market expansion opportunities.

Listing of companies, many of which are seeking out collaborators, we’ve supported in 12 countries. This database is still being enriched and more data to be added by end of March.

Organization: New Energy Nexus

Satsense App

This tool uses satellite earth observation for transparent digital monitoring reporting and verification of Natural Capital projects. It can evaluate the positive impacts of land management practices to help generate carbon, biodiversity and other green credits.

Organization: Satsense Solutions

Due Diligence Check list

Checklist of documents to put in your Data Room for a DD process

Organization: Impact Hub Abidjan

Creative Metier 4V Model Diagnostic Tool

The Creative Metier 4V Model offers socially committed impact networks, and their funders, the opportunity to significantly accelerate their impact by drawing on our work with national, regional and global networks.

It provides a diagnostic, a 360 view and a fresh perspective to strengthen network performance and impact.

The 4V Model Diagnostic Tool benchmarks your network now, informs strategic planning, sets annual priorities, reviews and refocuses, and stretches thinking about what might be possible.

Organization: Creative Metier

Impact-OS (Powered by Impact Amplifier)

Impact-OS (IOS) helps organisations create digital accelerator programmes in Africa.

IOS provides technology to investors, Enterprise Support Organisations (ESOs), and accelerators to setup, white label and manage scalable online programmes to entrepreneurs, particularly focused on grant and investment readiness.

Organization: Impact Amplifier

What Ugandan ESOs Can Teach the World

Whatโ€™s working in entrepreneur support in Uganda?

โ€œThe whole is greater than the sum of its partsโ€ is a phrase associated with the principles behind entrepreneurship ecosystem development. When ecosystem actors collaborate, the value they create by working together is larger than if they work independently. This certainly rings true with what weโ€™ve experienced working with more than 170 fellow Entrepreneur Support Organisations (ESOs) from 40 countries since 2015.

Sub-Saharan Africa is a hub for innovation. The continent has the highest rate of entrepreneurship globally, partly because of its young and digitally literate population. The support provided by tech hubs, incubators, and accelerators is invaluable. Depending on which resources you reference, Africa has somewhere between 600 to 1300 of these organisations across the continent and they provide the contextualised support that African entrepreneurs need to grow and
scale.

This report shares key insights drawn from the Ugandan ecosystem and a practical set of exercises developed in close collaboration with ESO leaders who have tried and tested building out their organisationsโ€™ financial, impact, and operational viability.

Organization: Village Capital

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