Wageningen Impact Catalyst fills the funding gap that sits between a promising idea and a proposition investors will back

Filling the gap before the gap

Early-stage founders at Wageningen University & Research in the Netherlands face a gap that grants and investors both skip over. The idea has moved past a sketch on paper. The team is serious. But before any investor will look seriously at the venture, some costs need covering: a prototype to test, a lab analysis to commission, and a user validation study to run. These are not large sums. But without them, the proposition stays theoretical, and a theoretical proposition raises no money.

Wageningen Impact Catalyst (WIC) is an initiative of Wageningen University & Research, supported by the University Fund Wageningen (UFW) and engaged alumni. WIC was watching this dynamic play out across its portfolio when it designed the Pay-it-Forward (PIF) Voucher. The instrument is simple: non-equity, philanthropic funding of between €2,500 and €10,000, tied to concrete validation milestones, covering only the out-of-pocket costs that sit between a promising idea and a credible proof of concept. No equity surrendered. Recipients do not incur a conventional debt obligation. And no application is considered without a clear development plan, defined milestones, and an expenditure overview backed by quotes and invoices. The Pay-it-Forward Voucher sits within WIC’s four-phase pathway from idea to market impact, targeted at the third phase, the point where founders move from proposition to solution and where the gap between a credible concept and a fundable company is at its widest. UFW issues the vouchers and retains discretion over individual awards.

The target group is narrow by design. WIC focuses on students, PhD candidates, staff and alumni developing ventures in the Wageningen domain (food systems, life sciences, sustainability) where societal and ecological relevance must typically be demonstrated before commercial traction is possible. These are science-based founders who need evidence before they can attract any other kind of support, and for whom the conventional funding ladder starts several rungs too high.

What distinguishes the model is what happens after the voucher is used. Recipients make no legal commitment to repay. Instead, they endorse a principle: when the venture achieves a net financial result of €100,000 in a fiscal year, they are encouraged to contribute a comparable amount back into the fund. This ambition to pay it forward is not an automatic obligation but an effort commitment, revisited with each recipient in annual progress meetings. The first cohort of recipients has already begun doing exactly that: some in financial contributions, others in time spent mentoring the next generation of WIC participants or speaking as guest lecturers. The fund currently holds around €400,000 in donations, has granted five vouchers and is evaluating two more, with a target of approximately ten grants per year.

The impact logic behind the voucher is not primarily financial. Many founders spend a disproportionate amount of time approaching investors before they have gathered the evidence investors need. The voucher replaces part of that funding chase with a small, purpose-bound budget, redirecting the team towards the validation work that will make the next investment conversation substantively different. Several early recipients have used the instrument to build the evidence base that unlocked follow-on funding from major international institutions, including the World Bank. SoualiGas, a company developing gasification technology to convert island waste into clean energy, shows what that access can unlock. Its founder, Matthew Halley, used one of WIC’s philanthropic funding instruments to meet World Bank stakeholders in the Netherlands and Sint Maarten, preparing a bid for a major tender. His account is direct:

The model turns the Wageningen ecosystem into something self-reinforcing. Today’s recipient, given the right conditions to succeed, becomes tomorrow’s donor, mentor and community contributor. Afropulse is a Pay-it-Forward Voucher recipient. Co-founded by Elisabeth Obeng the company processes cowpeas sourced from female smallholder farmers in Ghana into protein- and starch-rich flour for European food markets. Obeng came to Wageningen to study and began to see agrifood business as a bridge to shift power imbalances between Africa and Europe. The voucher supported a pilot project with 37 female farmers in Tamale and the development of a processing protocol for distribution to European customers. Afropulse received its WUR Spin-off Label in 2025 and is expanding its client base as it tests its products in new markets. What began as a mechanism to fill a funding gap is becoming a culture, one in which the founders who benefited from the community feel a stake in sustaining it.