During the 2024 Annual Meetings of the IDB and IDB Invest, member countries approved the proposal for IDB Lab – the IDB's innovation and venture arm – to enhance its operating model and become an innovation hub for development. This approval allows IDB Lab to seek $400 million in new funding, to be deployed in the 2026-2032 period.

IDB Lab seeks to increase impact at scale by aggregating actors and resources around development issues where entrepreneurial innovation can make a difference, but does not yet have sufficient market support. It also aims to deploy structured programs with multiple projects to address development problems from different angles. It also intends to strengthen synergies across the IDB Group by prioritizing projects that open new frontiers for the IDB and IDB Invest.

The hub model – which builds upon unique features of IDB Lab, including its higher risk appetite, grassroots network and agility in deploying financing – aims to triple the entity’s resource mobilization per dollar deployed and scale up 40% of its projects. Additionally, the new model will help ensure that all IDB Lab projects benefit poor and vulnerable populations.

This milestone will ensure that IDB Lab plays a leading role in enabling a new wave of entrepreneurial solutions capable of driving social inclusion, environmental action, and productivity in Latin America and the Caribbean.