The quest for the best social innovations begins!
The Accelerate2030 program launches its third edition in collaboration with the United Nations Development Program!
Exciting times for Impact Hub Geneva as we collaborate with the UNDP for the third year running! Today we launch the third edition of #Accelerate2030, a global scaling program designed for entrepreneurs driving innovative and scalable solutions to the world’s key challenges, including poverty, clean water, health and wellbeing.
Since the launch of the #Accelerate2030 program in 2016, its mission is to identify and support the most promising entrepreneurs who work to make the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) a reality. To-date the program has received over 500 applications, supported 80 ventures on both national and international levels and welcomed selected high-impact ventures to meet with investors and corporates at the Social Good Summit Geneva and the UN General Assembly in New York.
Accelerate2030 Entrepreneurs of 2017
It’s clear that these entrepreneurs are helping us work toward the achievement of the SDGs too. For example PiiPee, a Brazilian venture lead by Ezequiel Vendana, has saved 65 million liters of water since joining the program, thanks to his innovation that allows toilet flushing without freshwater. Hear X has scaled across over 25 countries globally allowing thousands of children with hearing disability to access quality education with the help of a simple and affordable mobile phone app. Whole Surplus organises and distributes leftover food in Turkey and by donating 231’250 meals and distributing 74 tonnes of food he has allowed to prevent 240 tonnes of CO2.
Through #Accelerate2030, high-impact ventures have the opportunity to develop, test and validate their journey to scale. The number of end beneficiaries of the supported ventures has increased dramatically – by 108%! There is also a clear increase in employment – 41%, and a 52% increase in female employment specifically.
Of course there is more than the numbers to it – real sustainability needs to be embedded in the organisation on every level. The ventures have told us that the program helped them make the Sustainable Development Goals a part of their business strategy:
“We integrate social impact and the SDGs in our investment proposals, as we realise it is important in attracting clients and funding”, says Olcay Silahli from Whole Surplus.
“I started the program with the vision to make the company grow. Today I am much more focused on how we can impact more”, says Ezequiel Vendana, CEO and founder of PiiPee from Brazil.
Ezequiel Verdana, CEO of Piipee, at the Social Good Summit Geneva 2018
#Accelerate2030 expands the concept of sustainability to the entrepreneurs and leaders themselves, and thanks to the leadership and resilience training the participants receive, they feel their leadership skills have significantly improved, as well as their self-confidence and work-life balance and the ability to lead their venture.
“The most important finding for myself throughout the program was that I realized entrepreneurial success is not just about business results in the short term but we also need to look longer term and care ourselves. #Accelerate2030 gives entrepreneurs the real global perspective on impact driven thinking”, says Olcay Sihlahli.
Results so far, are the reason we are very proud and happy to announce the launch the third edition of #Accelerate2030 This year’s edition will concentrate especially in the SDG 3: Good Health and Wellbeing and SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation. The program starts with a national scale-readiness program in 16 developing and emerging economies, from Mexico to the Philippines. Like during the previous editions, the ventures with the highest scaling potential will be invited to the Global Scaling Program, including a one week bootcamp in Geneva in October 2019, where they will participate in the Social Good Summit and have an opportunity to create strategic partnerships that help them scale their business globally.
For more information, visit https://accelerate2030.net/ or connect with us on social media, through Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Instagram.