History

Solvoz Foundation did not start as an organisation.

It started with a  question.

That question came from seasoned humanitarians with backgrounds in operations, supply chain and logistics. Having worked with humanitarian agencies close to field realities, they had seen how much effort goes into getting the right goods, services and solutions to the right place, often under pressure, with limited resources and high accountability.

They also saw a structural problem. Across the aid sector, valuable procurement knowledge (specifications, quality or sector standards, designs) existed everywhere, but it was fragmented. Product specifications, supplier information, sourcing lessons, local market knowledge and practical procurement experience were often stored in separate spreadsheets, reports, inboxes and individual memories.

The idea was simple but ambitious: make practical procurement knowledge more visible, reusable and accessible, so that organisations working in aid and development could buy better, faster and more responsibly.

2016, the idea takes shape

AidInnov focused on opening up expert knowledge for the aid sector. The aim was to help organisations find relevant products, services and solutions more easily, understand what was needed to use them responsibly and avoid recreating the same procurement knowledge again and again. A novel type of open catalogue.

A core belief was that procurement knowledge developed with public or donor funding should not sit on someone’s desk or disappear into internal systems; wherever possible, it should become open, reusable infrastructure for the wider sector.

The starting point was not technology for its own sake. It was a sector problem: organisations needed to buy better, faster and more responsibly, but too much knowledge was locked away or repeatedly recreated.

2019, establishing the Foundation

In 2019, the AidInnov Foundation was formally established, with support from Philips Foundation. The Foundation was created to promote freely accessible knowledge, sustainability, effectiveness and efficiency in the planning and spending of funds in international aid and development cooperation.

Its early role was to support open-access knowledge for the aid sector: making product and solution information easier to find, share and use, so that organisations did not have to start from scratch each time they needed to procure goods or services.

This public-benefit purpose remains central to the Foundation today.

From open knowledge to digital infrastructure

As the work developed, it became clear that knowledge alone was not enough. The aid and development sector did not only need better information. It also needed better ways to turn that information into action: structured sourcing, supplier visibility, comparable product and service information, and more transparent procurement workflows.

This led to the development of Solvoz as a broader digital procurement infrastructure. The technology was built from within the humanitarian and development sector, responding to structural procurement challenges such as fragmented knowledge, limited supplier visibility (espeically of local suppliers and SMEs), duplicated specifications, inefficient sourcing processes and limited access to local and regional markets.

2021, the name Solvoz Foundation

In 2021, the AidInnov Foundation changed its name to Solvoz Foundation. The new name reflected the broader Solvoz ecosystem: a combination of open-access knowledge, digital procurement tools and a mission to improve how organisations spend funds in aid and development contexts.

The name Solvoz was inspired by the idea of solving. The team had looked at Esperanto, a language designed to be neutral and international. In Esperanto, “solvi” means “to solve”. The future tense would become “solvos”. By changing the final letter, Solvoz became more distinctive, while keeping the same intention: helping organisations find the right solutions for the needs they face.

The name captured the mission: to open up knowledge, support better decisions and help actors in aid and development find responsible solutions.

Two vehicles, one mission, distinct roles

Over time, two vehicles developed alongside each other, each with a distinct role.

• Solvoz BV became the professional technology company responsible for software development, hosting, maintenance, support, security, technical operations and continued development. As a company, Solvoz BV can also serve commercial markets and explore commercial opportunities where those fall outside the Foundation’s non-profit and public-benefit scope.
• Solvoz Foundation remained the mission-led non-profit foundation. Its role was not to act as an NGO-facing wrapper around the company, but to safeguard the public-benefit mission that gave rise to the work in the first place.

That role had two parts. First, the Foundation acted as the guardian of open-access knowledge. Knowledge developed for the aid and development sector could be made available for public-benefit use wherever possible.

Second, the Foundation helped safeguard the original mission and vision behind Solvoz. In the Netherlands, Solvoz BV was registered as a company, while the wider ambition was to operate as a mission-driven social enterprise. The combined structure helped protect that mission, especially if equity investment or external control were ever to enter the company structure.

The Foundation’s purpose was therefore not to replace the company, nor to limit Solvoz BV’s ability to grow. Its purpose was to ensure that the knowledge, principles and infrastructure originally developed for the aid and development sector could continue to serve that sector under mission-aligned conditions.

2019–2025, safeguarding knowledge and mission

Between 2019 and 2025, the Foundation’s role evolved from early open-access knowledge development into a broader guardian role for the Solvoz mission. The Foundation helped ensure that work developed for the aid and development sector could be shared as open-access knowledge where appropriate. It also provided a public-benefit anchor for the wider Solvoz vision: using procurement not only as an operational process, but as a lever for transparency, localisation, sustainability and more effective use of public and donor funds.

During this period, Solvoz BV continued developing the technology and proving the need for professional procurement infrastructure in complex, mission-driven environments. This professional technology role was essential. Building, hosting, securing and maintaining digital procurement infrastructure requires a dedicated technology company with the capacity to develop and scale.

The question for the next phase became: how can the Foundation move from guardian of mission and open knowledge into a stronger operating foundation, while keeping the roles clear? The answer is a renewed model in which the Foundation serves non-profit and public-benefit deployments through its own governance and mission, while Solvoz BV remains the professional software owner and technology provider, including for commercial opportunities outside the Foundation’s scope.

2026 and beyond, a renewed Foundation model

From mid-2026 onwards, Solvoz Foundation is being restructured as an independent, mission-led non-profit foundation serving Non-profit actors; the NGO, humanitarian, development and wider non-profit sector.

Its role is to ensure that procurement knowledge, fair market access and digital infrastructure originally developed for the aid and development sector remain accessible under mission-aligned conditions. Commercial deployments, or deployments primarily serving commercial actors for commercial purposes, remain outside the Foundation’s scope and are served by Solvoz BV or other appropriate commercial entities.

The Foundation will focus on:

• open-access procurement knowledge;
• non-profit access to professional procurement infrastructure;
• fair market access for local and regional suppliers, SMEs and manufacturers;
• Foundation-supported deployments for NGOs, donors and public-benefit programmes;
• supplier onboarding and localisation support;
• grant-funded programmes and sector collaboration.

In Foundation-supported deployments, supplier, SME and manufacturer registration is free. This reflects one of the Foundation’s core beliefs: fairer procurement markets start with lowering barriers to visibility. See more in our strategic plan 2026-2030.

Mission first, technology professionally delivered

The renewed model is designed to keep the Foundation’s public-benefit mission at the centre: open knowledge, non-profit access, supplier inclusion, fair market visibility and accountability towards NGOs, donors, funders and the wider non-profit sector.

Solvoz Foundation is an independent, mission-led non-profit foundation with its own governance, purpose and public-benefit responsibilities. Its role is to ensure that procurement knowledge, fair market access and professional infrastructure remain accessible to the non-profit sector under mission-aligned conditions.

Where Foundation-supported deployments require technology, the underlying platform can be provided through formal service agreements, transparent non-profit pricing, clear service levels and documented responsibilities. This structure allows the Foundation to serve the non-profit sector without becoming a commercial platform, while ensuring that the technology behind its deployments remains professionally developed, maintained, secure and scalable.

With thanks

The Foundation’s journey has been shaped by many people and organisations who believed that procurement knowledge should be more open, practical and accessible.

We are grateful to the early supporters, partners, experts, NGOs, suppliers and funders who contributed knowledge, feedback, resources and trust along the way. Their involvement helped turn an initial idea into open-access knowledge, practical tools and eventually a broader infrastructure for more responsible procurement.

In particular, the early support from Philips Foundation helped make the establishment of the AidInnov Foundation possible in 2019. Since then, many partners and contributors have helped shape the Solvoz mission and its continued evolution. Thanks to FMO / InvestInternational, Pieter Bastiaan Stichting, HELP Logistics, Innovoation Norway, IDA foundation and many others.

As the Foundation enters its renewed phase, we continue to welcome collaboration with organisations and individuals who share the belief that procurement can be a lever for localisation, transparency, sustainability and better use of public and donor funds.

Continuing the mission

The renewed Solvoz Foundation builds on its AidInnov roots, but looks forward. Its purpose is not to own technology for its own sake, nor to act as a commercial platform. Its purpose is to make sure that procurement knowledge, fair supplier visibility and professional digital infrastructure remain accessible to the organisations and ecosystems they were originally built for.

The next chapter is about turning that mission into a stronger operating model: ready to help NGOs, donors and partners use procurement as a lever for localisation, transparency and sustainable impact, ready to help suppliers and SMEs across the globe, big and small to become visible.