Commonwealth Investment Network builds on its first cohort with an open investment-readiness programme for climate-positive businesses across the Commonwealth.
Self-serve programme supported by the Earth Collective platform expands CIN’s support from seven small-island businesses to every eligible applicant across 56 member states; to be presented to Commonwealth leaders at CHOGM in November.
The Commonwealth Investment Network (CIN) has opened its Investment Readiness Programme to eligible climate-positive businesses and projects across the Commonwealth. The programme builds on the CIN’s first accelerator cohort, focused on Pacific and Caribbean small island states – moving from a selected group of seven climate businesses to a self-serve model open to every applicant, in every member state.
The CIN’s first cohort, which ran between December 2025 and March 2026, drew 136 applications from 17 Pacific and Caribbean small island states. The seven businesses selected each received over 50 hours of tailored mentorship and presented to investors at the CIN Showcase and Summit in London, with funding mobilised for cohort businesses and a 100% recommendation rate from participants. The new programme takes what worked in the cohort model and makes it available at scale, opening the same support to businesses across the Commonwealth’s 56 member states.
Through this programme, any eligible climate-positive business or project that applies, completes a bankability diagnostic and receives a readiness roadmap. The roadmap shows where it stands on the investment-readiness pathway and which tools and guidance will help close its priority gaps. Mentorship is targeted at those closest to raising capital. Investment promotion agencies and partner institutions receive the same resources free of charge, along with a consistent view of readiness across the businesses and projects in their pipeline.
The application, diagnostic and roadmap are delivered on the digital platform by Earth Collective, a company based in Canada and Australia whose product lets programmes like the CIN run their own investment-readiness pipelines, from application through to investor-readiness.
“Closing the climate finance gap across the Commonwealth requires a systems-level approach that goes beyond the cohort model. It means building the capacity to support climate-positive businesses and projects at scale, and strengthening the local institutions that can help them navigate the path to finance. Through the Commonwealth Investment Network, we’re working with partners to make practical, investor-informed support accessible, while creating opportunities for knowledge sharing and peer learning across the Commonwealth. The ambition is to create a model that can be delivered and sustained over the long term,” said Lana Baker-Cowling, Programme Manager for the Commonwealth Investment Network at Financial Innovation for Impact.
“Most sustainable businesses across the Commonwealth struggle to get investment, and visibility is only half the reason. The other half is readiness: founders don’t know which gaps are stopping them, so they spend months pitching investors who were never going to say yes,” said Anthony Moorhouse, co-founder of Earth Collective. “We’re helping the CIN turn a programme for seven companies into infrastructure for 56 countries. Every applicant gets a clear picture of where they stand and what to fix next, without guesswork, and investors get a pipeline where the noise has already been filtered out.”
Businesses and projects in eligible Commonwealth nations can apply directly, or through their national investment promotion agency, at https://www.google.com/url?q=h
About the Commonwealth Investment Network:
Launched at CHOGM in October 2024 to identify and support investment opportunities in climate-vulnerable Commonwealth countries, including Small Island Developing States. Its pilot phase was delivered by the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance with support from Financial Innovation for Impact, which are now the continued delivery partners.
About Earth Collective:
Builds investment-readiness infrastructure for the networks that support early-stage businesses and projects. Teams in Montreal, Canada and Noosa, Australia.
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