This session is co-organised with the European Investment Bank Institute and will be an opportunity for impact investors to build bridges with social entrepreneurs for future investment deals and give social investors and EVPA members a sense of some of the most interesting social innovations being developed across Europe.
These are the impact ventures that will be showcasing their work:
Hehop
1 in 6 women in the world is killed every hour by an intimate partner or male member of her family while 1 in 3 is subject to violence across her life time.
That violence is widely underreported (85%) and when it is, less than 20% gets prosecuted for lack of evidence. HeHop is a mobile app that enables survivors and witnesses to collect geolocated, timestamped, tamper-proof, encrypted evidence to make it legally valid in court.
Awards: Social Innovation Tournament 2019 – General Category Winner, BlockchAngel Challenge 2020 – Winner, B-Hub Europe 2020 – Top 30 blockchain projects in Europe
Fazla Gida
Supported by UNDP to reach SDGs, Fazla Gida creates technology connections between corporations to eliminate technical and managerial barriers of waste management for food businesses through digitalisation. Fazla Gida’s management system offers holistic and digital solutions in line with Food Recovery Hierarchy and according to the needs of its partner companies. Placing technology at the heart of a crucial issue such as food waste, our digital platform delivers 360 degrees solutions to any type of food waste, that is eligible for human consumption, animal feeding, recycling. In addition, the platform provides data analytics to food companies for reducing waste at the source.
Koiki
Koiki is a social entrepreneurship company funded in Spain in 2015, winning in that year the EIB Institute’s SIT first prize in Milano. Koiki operates in the last mile delivery sector, which is growing very fast and is a huge job generator. KOIKI addresses three issues at the same time: (1) unemployment within disadvantaged communities (e.g. intellectually disabled, people with mental health problems, long-term unemployed, etc.); (2) pollution coming from urban parcel distribution – “Koikis” deliver in a sustainable way (walking, biking, electric vehicles); and (3) the inefficiencies within the last mile delivery sector that harm not only the the e-commerce industry but also cities and its inhabitants.
Goodbag
The bgood App lets customers track their impact in real-time and rewards them with points – called Seeds – every time they act sustainable or buy sustainable products. With goodbag we have developed the world’s first smart shopping bag that connects with our app and lets customers plant trees and collect plastic out of the ocean every time they re-use their bag. After reaching product market fit with goodbag we are now expanding the platform to allow users to also collect Seeds for buying sustainable products or re-using our smart reusable coffee cup goodcup. After collecting them, users can donate their Seeds to selected projects and organizations to for example plant trees or collect plastic out of the ocean.
Walk with Path
Walk With Path builds wearables for mobility improvement and better quality of life. Our first product, Path Finder, for people with Parkinson’s is clinically validated laser shoes enabling better walking and independence. Our next product, Path Feel, is smart footwear to improve balance for diabetics, offering day-to-day impact and analytics for screening for falls and foot ulcer risk.
Fedora
The « Next Stage » project by Fedora unites opera and dance companies to drive change through sustainability, inclusivity and digital transformation on, behind and beyond the stage. “Next Stage” will provide financial support and skills development to boost innovation and holistic sustainability in three focus areas – green, inclusive and digital transformative initiatives – in order to build resilience within the performing arts sector. The purpose is for opera and dance companies to proactively transform themselves, to become exemplary leaders while opening up new funding opportunities. As of next year, grants will be distributed to support the development of innovative, scalable projects championed by opera and dance companies for the benefit of the sector. 45 opera and dance companies in 17 countries have already committed to this initiative.
Konexio
The leitmotiv of Konexio is “Talent is equally distributed, but opportunity is not.” Our vision is to create a more inclusive society, in which no one is marginalised due to lack of access to digital skills. Our mission is to train the most vulnerable in digital skills – from the most basic to the most advanced – in order to facilitate their social and professional integration. Our ambition is to train 10,000 learners by 2023 and develop our presence in France (through the opening of new regional offices) and internationally (by renewing the project in Malawi and launching other programs in Kenya in particular).
IRIS
IRIS, a social innovation incubator, has developed the project “Mudar o mundo” (changing the world), which will help children to become future impact leaders. The project is aiming at bringing social innovation to children. With playful tools, such as a book and an online course, it will make them understand the most pressing social and environmental challenges, as well as learning what social innovation is, bringing their ideas to life and changing the world for the better: now and in the future. “Mudar o mundo” wants to help create future changemakers.