New accelerator SPRING is now accepting applications from from startups improving the lives of adolescent girls living in poverty.

SPRING Accelerator is excited to announce that the application for 2015 is now open. SPRING is a pioneering accelerator looking for businesses with products or services that benefit the lives of girls. It’s a market meets social change model that revolutionizes the idea of industry, giving your business the chance to innovate and succeed in ways you never imagined before—and to forever improve the lives of girls.

More than 250 million girls live in poverty. But it’s not just a social problem. It’s a market one. Girls need products and services that help them learn, work and save. When they can do those things without risk or harm, everything changes. For every year of schooling a girl completes, her ability to earn exponentially increases. It’s been shown that she’s likely to reinvest 90% of that rising income into her family, compared to 35% for boys. Her family grows up healthier. Her children go to school. Agricultural productivity improves. And the cycle of poverty ends forever.

Sponsored by the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID), the Nike Foundation, and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), SPRING will help chosen businesses further develop and market their girl-forward products through grants of up to US$80,000, workshops and mentorships.

If your business has made sales in the past year; have or will have operations in Rwanda, Kenya or Uganda by June 2015; and target girls ages 10 to 19 as customers, beneficiaries, or target market, apply for SPRING!

Deadlines for application is March 16, 2016. Apply now at https://www.springaccelerator.org.