Oxford University SBS M1U3: Grant Proposal for a New Venture

This assignment presents a grant proposal for a blockchain app, Unblock Africa, designed to serve the unbanked population of South Africa. The proposal aims to secure a US$100,000 government grant by addressing the venture's strengths and weaknesses, its potential commercial and societal contributions, and justifying why it deserves the funding. The proposal highlights the need for financial support, including costs for subscriber acquisition and education, and outlines goals such as establishing Fintech banking technology and providing safe banking transactions. The strategy involves partnerships with technology providers and financial institutions, and the proposal emphasizes the app's ability to improve financial inclusion and provide access to banking services for a significant portion of the South African population. The proposal is structured around an executive summary, statement of need, goals and objectives, and methods and strategies, designed to convince the government of the project's viability and societal impact. The assignment is part of the Oxford SBS Module 1 Unit 3, focusing on assessing a project's commercial and societal value.

MODULE 1 UNIT 3
Activity submission

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Learning outcome:
LO6: Assess what a specific project venture will deliver in terms of commercial and
societal value.
Name:
1. Instructions and guidelines (Read carefully)
Instructions
1. Insert your name and surname in the space provided above, as well as in the file
name. Save the file as: First name Surname M1U3 Activity Submission – e.g.
Lilly Smith M1U3 Activity Submission.NB: Please ensure that you use the name
that appears in your participant profile on the Online Campus.
2. Write all your answers in this document. There is an instruction that says, ‘Start
writing here’ under each question. Please type your answer there.
3. Submit your assignment in Microsoft Word only. No other file types will be
accepted.
4. Do not delete the plagiarism declaration or the assignment instructions and
guidelines. They must remain in your assignment when you submit.
PLEASE NOTE: Plagiarism cases will be investigated in line with the Terms and
Conditions for participants.
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IMPORTANT NOTICE: Please ensure that you have checked your programme calendar
for the due date for this assignment.
Guidelines
1. There are 7 pages and 1 question in this assignment.
2. Make sure that you have carefully read and fully understood the questions before
answering them. Answer the questions fully, but concisely, and as directly as
possible. Follow all specific instructions for individual questions (e.g. ‘list’, ‘in point
form’).
3. Answer all questions in your own words. Do not copy any text from the notes,
readings, or other sources. The assignment must be your own work only.
Plagiarism declaration:
1. I know that plagiarism is wrong. Plagiarism is to use another’s work and
pretend that it is one’s own.
2. This assignment is my own work.
3. I have not allowed, and will not allow, anyone to copy my work with the
intention of passing it off as his or her own work.
4. I acknowledge that copying someone else’s assignment (or part of it) is
wrong, and declare that my assignments are my own work.
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2. Mark allocation
Each question receives a mark allocation. However, you will only receive a final
percentage mark and will not be given individual marks for each question. The mark
allocation is there to show you the weighting of each question.
Question 1 24
TOTAL 24
3. Question
Case studies:
Throughout this programme, you will refer to two case studies of fictional ventures:
DrAIveand Unblock Africa. DrAIve is an American AI venture creating AI-enabled
semiconductors for autonomous vehicles, while Unblock Africa is a South African venture
developing a blockchain app for people who are unbanked. Being unbanked means that
people do not have a bank account and are not affiliated with a particular bank.
You will be asked to use the information in the case studies to complete your activity
submission for each module. Further details about each venture will be provided as the
programme progresses.
For this activity submission, download and read theslide decks for each case study, then
answer the question below.
There is a US$100,000 government grant available for a well-organised start-up. Review
the two slide decks featuring the initial business plans ofDrAIve and Unblock Africa.
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Select one of the ventures and write a government grant proposal, in which you argue for
why the venture you have chosen should receive the funding.
Ensure that your proposal addresses the following points:
 Using the first three pillars in the venture evaluation framework as a guide, what
appear to be the strong and weak points of the venture?
 What will the venture contribute in terms of commercial value?
 What will the venture contribute in terms of societal value?
 Why does the venture deserve US$100,000 in funding?
(Write 300–450 words.)
As you prepare for this assignment, please consider the following additional materials:
Creating a grant proposal:
Creating a grant proposal will not necessarily be included in the pre-deal process that
every entrepreneur experiences, as it is not part of the traditional entrepreneur–investor
dynamic. However, grants are a form of funding that entrepreneurs can pursue for some,
or in rare cases, all of their funding. When applying for a grant, entrepreneurs appeal to a
specific person, organisation, or department who has confirmed that they will provide a
certain predetermined amount of funding. For example, many governments provide
grants for small businesses or start-ups. In these instances, it is often to foster
development, such as building the local economy or for social upliftment. When
assessing the commercial or societal value of a venture, investors must understand how
it will contribute to these. As such, it is crucial that the entrepreneur’s proposal clearly
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illustrates this. A specific grant will evaluate a venture based on particular criteria, but
many focus on commercial and societal value. Commercial value refers to the financial
value that the venture could contribute, while societal value addresses what the venture
would contribute to a specific community (Marshall, Johnson & Fulton, n.d.).
Figure 1 outlines the four key components that should be included in a grant proposal.
Authorities require all of these components to decide whether the venture should be
awarded a grant.
Figure 1: An example of a grant proposal.
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Further reading:
Read the following article on planning and writing a grant proposal. It includes detailed
guidelines on the information that should be included in this document.
Start writing here:
Executive summary
The main mission of this proposal is to outline the strategies that I intend to put in
place when developing a blockchain app to be used in South Africa. Besides I am
aiming to convince the government to offer support to my project has set aside
US$100,000 as a grant for any organized business start-up. I think this app will add a
lot of the advantages especially to the members of the public willing to do their
banking most conveniently and safely. Basically, it all involves changing with
technology and getting the solutions to the daily issues facing society. I believe this
app is set to open up new ways in which people having no bank accounts would have
a better way of saving their income. It is kind of an exciting app that will bring joy to
unbanked people because it will offer them a chance to feel involved in this banking
system but through an efficient app. The proposal is trying to be as convincing as
possible to benefit from the grant for its development.
Statement of need
When developing this blockchain app, there will be a great need for financial support
to cater to the cost of acquiring new subscribers which amount to about R30. The new
subscribers will be sourced from a potential market of about 6.1 m million people in
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whom about 20% have no access to bank accounts, and about 54% of that percentage
has access to internet services. Besides, there will be a significant need to educate the
target customers to win their trust since the app to be developed will be new in the
South African market. The education of people regarding the app will involve
advertisements of how the app works on social media. There would be a need for the
creation of internet traffics to ensure that the application reaches as many people as
possible. The information about the app will need to be integrated into the youtube
channels so that the description of the app users would be more clear and
comprehensive.
Goals and objective
While developing this app, I plan to make Fintech banking technology more
established in South African banks, where it will enable customers to carry out bank
transactions in an effective manner.
Besides that, when developing the blockchain app, I intend to make all behavioral
financial-driven model in a commonplace.
To develop an app that will offer rudimentary Libra-based bank accounts to all
citizens of South Africa.
The other objective is to come up with efficient strategies in which members of the
public will carry out their bank transactions in a safer manner.
Method and strategy
To make this innovation a success, I intend to partner with different expertise that will
include technology partners, phone operators who will ensure technology integration.
Other partners will consist of channel partners, surrogates to create the account and
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sales agents. When developing this app, financial support will be required, which I
intend to source different sources which include a philanthropic grant of about R400,
000 from a social impact foundation. Besides that, I also plan to receive a government
grant of about US$100,000, which is set aside to support well-organized business
start-ups.
4. Rubric
Your Module 1 activity submission will be graded according to the following rubric:
Poor or
incomplete
Satisfactory to
good
Very good Exceeds
expectations
Adherence to
instructions
The response
addresses all
points posed in
the question,
adheres to the
instructions,
and does not
exceed the
stipulated word
count.
No submission.
OR
The response
does not follow
the
instructions.
OR
The response
exceeds the
stipulated word
count. (0)
The response
adequately
addresses most of
the points in the
question. It adheres
to most of the
instructions and
does not exceed
the stipulated word
count.(2)
The response
addresses all of
the points in the
question and
adheres to the
word count. (3)
The response
perceptively
addresses all
the points in
the question
and does not
exceed the
stipulated word
count. (4)
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The venture’s
strengths and
weaknesses
The response
provides
insight into
the strong and
weak points of
the venture.
No submission.
OR
The response
does not
address the
strong or weak
points of the
venture. (0)
The response
demonstrates an
adequate attempt to
identify the strong
and weak points of
the venture,
butlacks clarity or
focuses solely on
either strengths or
weaknesses.
Thethree pillars are
notused well. (2)
The response
shows a good
attempt at
explaining the
strong and weak
points of the
venture. The three
pillars are used
well.(3)
The response
showcases an
excellent
explanation of
both the strong
and weak
points. The
three pillars are
used very well.
(4)
The venture’s
commercial
contribution
The response
is convincing
and provides
insight into
what the
venture will
deliver in terms
of commercial
value.
No submission.
OR
The response
is not
convincing and
fails to mention
what the
venture will
contribute in
commercial
value. (0)
The response
demonstrates
adequateinsight
intowhat the
venture will deliver
in commercial
value. (2)
The response is
convincing and
demonstrates
goodinsight
intowhat the
venture will deliver
in commercial
value. (3)
The response
is highly
convincing and
demonstrates
excellent
insight into
what the
venture will
deliver in
commercial
value. (4)
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The venture’s
societal
contribution
The response
is convincing
and shows
insight into
what the
venture will
deliver in
societal value.
No submission.
OR
The response
is not
convincing and
fails to
demonstrate
any insight into
what the
venture will
deliver in
societal value.
(0)
The response is
somewhat
convincing and
demonstrates
adequate insight
into what the
venture will deliver
in societal value. (2)
The response is
convincing and
demonstrates
good insight into
what the venture
will deliver in
societal value. (3)
The response
is highly
convincing and
demonstrates
excellent
insight into
what the
venture will
deliver in
societal value.
(4)
Argument for
why the
venture
deserves
funding
The response
provides a
convincing
argument for
why the
venture
deserves
No submission.
OR
The response
does not argue
why the
venture
deserves
funding. (0)
The response
provides an
adequate argument
as to why the
venture deserves
funding. (2)
The response
provides a
convincing
argument as to
why the venture
deserves funding.
(3)
The response
providesa
highly
convincing
arguments
to why the
venture
deserves
funding. (4)
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funding.
Clarity and
organisation
of the writing
The response
is structured
clearly and
logically.
No submission.
OR
The response
is unclear,
unstructured,
or incoherent.
(0)
The response is
structured
adequately in terms
of logic, clarity, and
succinctness. (2)
The response is
structured well in
terms of logic,
clarity, and
succinctness. (3)
The response
is structured
exceptionally
well in terms of
logic, clarity,
and
succinctness.
(4)
Total: 24 marks
5. Bibliography
Marshall, M., Johnson, A. & Fulton, J. n.d. Writing a Successful Grant Proposal. Purdue
Extension. EC-737. Available: https://www.extension.purdue.edu/extmedia/ec/ec-
737.pdf [2019, May 31].
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