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Consultancy – ImpactSF 2.0

 Market Analysis

The Organization

The Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT delivers research-based solutions that harness agricultural biodiversity and sustainably transform food systems to improve people’s lives. Alliance solutions address the global crises of malnutrition, climate change, biodiversity loss, and environmental degradation.

The Alliance works with local, national and multinational partners across Latin America and the Caribbean, Asia and Africa, and with the public and private sectors. The Alliance is part of CGIAR, a global research partnership for a food-secure future, dedicated to reducing poverty, enhancing food and nutrition security, and improving natural resources and ecosystem services.

Background on ImpactSF

A USD 2.5 trillion annual funding gap exists in meeting the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, with a USD 300–350 billion annual shortfall specific to food and land use system transformation. The CGIAR Hub for Sustainable Finance (ImpactSF) has been a key technical partner for sustainable finance actors, integrating science-based solutions in all areas of the investment lifecycle. This includes investment design, pipeline development, investment screening, due diligence, implementation, post-investment monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV). Building off CGIAR evidence, ImpactSF offers an array of data-driven solutions empowering financial institutions and investors to de-risk investments by quantifying climate and environmental risks and impacts

As of April 2026, ImpactSF has provided technical guidance to eight investment vehicles targeting over USD 1 billion in combined capital deployment, has co-designed climate-smart loan products with 15+ financial institutions across Africa, Asia, and Latin America, and has deployed its flagship digital tools,the ImpactSF Analyzer and Reporting Platform — across Rwanda, Ethiopia, Pakistan, Cambodia, and the Philippines. In 2025, ImpactSF was formally embedded within CGIAR Science Program 9 (Scaling for Impact), securing its long-term role in CGIAR's research architecture.

About the consultancy

The shift in the global funding landscape reinforces the urgency of developing a robust, diversified, and self-reinforcing business model for what we term ImpactSF 2.0. This next phase must be grounded in a rigorous market analysis, positioning options, viable funding models, partnership mapping and engagement.

To this end, ImpactSF is seeking a qualified consultant to conduct a market study that will provide the strategic foundation for ImpactSF 2.0. In addition, the consultant will develop the launch roadmap of high potential ImpactSF products, through testing the user interface, modeling market demand, advising on positioning strategy and business model. Finally, the consultant will be providing ad hoc advisory in relation to ImpactSF’s next stage of institutional development.

Objectives

The consultancy has the following specific objectives:

·        Market Landscape and Trends: Provide a rigorous, evidence-based analysis of the sustainable agricultural finance market landscape, including trends, regulatory drivers, and demand dynamics relevant to ImpactSF’s core functions.

·        Partner Profiles, Positioning, and Product Benchmarking: Define and prioritise ImpactSF’s partner profiles based on needs assessed and fit with ImpactSF’s capabilities, explicitly assessing the viability of engaging new segments. Map the landscape to identify existing service offerings and positioning gaps, and evaluate ImpactSF’s current and potential product/service portfolio against comparable market actors, with benchmarking by service line and recommended strategies for ImpactSF 2.0.

·        Business Model Scenarios: Develop and assess 2–3 viable business model scenarios for ImpactSF 2.0, recommending a preferred model with a phased implementation roadmap for 2026–2028. Scenarios must span the full ambition range: from broadened advisory services to commercial clients, to technology-enabled platform models, and structured financial product facilitation designed to mobilize commercial capital at scale.

·        Financial Model Inputs and Actionable Outputs: Produce a structured set of quantified assumptions and evidence-based inputs that can directly inform a sustainable financial model for ImpactSF 2.0 — including, at minimum: market size estimates by segment, price points by service line, cost-to-deliver benchmarks, realistic client acquisition assumptions, revenue ramp timelines..

·        Launch Roadmap of ImpactSF Platform: Test and validate the user interface and underlying logic, develop market positioning, target user segments, onboarding strategy, partnership opportunities, pricing considerations, and a phased implementation plan to support the adoption of the platform for impact measurement, reporting, and portfolio analytics across Agri-SMEs, financial institutions, and development partners.

·        Ad hoc advisory: Provide strategic advisory support on ImpactSF’s next stage of institutional development, including business model refinement, growth opportunities, partnership strategy, service portfolio development, and organizational positioning.

Scope of Work

The consultancy covers five interconnected analytical pillars:

Pillar 1 Market Landscape and Trends

·        Map the current and emerging landscape of sustainable agricultural finance, climate finance, and blended finance

·        Identify key trends driving demand for science-based advisory and tools, including among corporates, pension funds, commercial banks, and MFIs increasingly subject to ESG disclosure, deforestation, and nature-related regulatory requirements and requiring update in their risk management and reporting practices.

·        Assess the evolving role of data, AI, and digital platforms in sustainable finance decision-making.

Pillar 2 Profiling and Needs Analysis

·        Define and profile ImpactSF's current partners: impact fund and asset managers; commercial banks and microfinance institutions (MFIs); pension funds and institutional investors; philanthropic actors; agri-SME accelerators; CGIAR’s research programmes; and government/policy actors.

·        Identify emerging and under-engaged partner segments (e.g corporations with sustainability mandates (agri-food, consumer goods, textiles, extractives) and development finance institutions (DFIs)) that have not been a primary focus to date but show potential alignment with ImpactSF’s capabilities and mission.

·        Assess the specific needs, pain points, capital allocation, and decision-making criteria of each profile.

Pillar 3Landscape Analysis and Positioning

·        Map key actors providing similar or overlapping services to ImpactSF's target partner profiles (e.g., ESG rating firms, impact measurement advisory firms, agricultural finance consultancies, data providers, academic institutions, DFI technical assistance facilities).

·        Examine ImpactSF’s potential role in structuring and certifying sustainable financial instruments, including green bonds, blue bonds, and sustainability-linked bonds, as a pathway to attracting commercial capital at scale and engaging institutional investors

·        Assess the potential for technology-enabled service delivery, including AI-assisted analytics, automated MRV platforms, and SaaS-based tools.

·        Analyze ImpactSF's competitive advantages and identify gaps or risks in its current positioning.

Pillar 4 — Benchmarking

·        Review and assess ImpactSF’s current offering and delivery modalities against evolving market needs and comparable approaches within the sustainable finance ecosystem.

·        Assess current pricing structures and cost-to-deliver across ImpactSF’s core functions (e.g. impact due diligence, climate risk analysis, MRV/reporting, advisory support, digital tools). This should include indicative cost per engagement and an understanding of resource intensity across delivery modalities.

·        Benchmark market pricing by service category, including typical fee structures (e.g. daily rates, project-based fees, retainers, subscriptions) across comparable actors.  Position ImpactSF against these benchmarks and identify areas of alignment or divergence.

·        Conduct a willingness-to-pay assessment across key partner segments (e.g. fund managers, financial institutions, corporates), distinguishing between activities that are typically grant-supported and those where cost-recovery or co-financing is feasible.

Pillar 5 — Sustainable Business Model Options

·        Develop business model scenarios for ImpactSF 2.0, spanning advisory-led engagement models (with expanded partner segments), platform-enabled delivery, and potential roles in supporting capital market instruments (e.g. analytics, scoring, or structuring support).

·        Estimate Total Addressable Market (TAM) and Serviceable Addressable Market (SAM) for each scenario and target segment and ealistic share of this demand that ImpactSF could engage with, given its mandate and capacity

·        Define market penetration assumptions (conservative, base, optimistic) over a 3–5 year horizon and translate these into indicative revenue ranges per scenario, distinguishing between grant funding, co-funded engagements, and cost-recovery mechanisms.

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