Supporting Mission-Driven Entrepreneurs
Stories about Alumni and Partners that appeared in the Press
Lisa Curtis started her business, Kuli Kuli, on the basis of the benefits of the moringa plant, which is grown in parts of Asia and Africa. The plant also became her key selling point. But then she realized, after a friend’s suggestion, that her story should lead the way.
https://www.mysanantonio.com/news/article/This-Extreme-Extrovert-Started-a-13731665.php
The series Planet Healers on Discovery Channel will deep dive into the journey of how these start-ups are working out innovative technology led solutions to environmental hazards faced in India. One of the first featured companies will be Chakr Innovation, who has created world’s first retro-fit emission control device for diesel generators which can capture over 90% of particulate matter emissions.
https://thecsrjournal.in/jim-sarbh-puts-spotlight-planet-healers-india/
TerViva, an agriculture technology firm commercializing resilient pongamia trees that produce as much as ten times the beans per acre as soy for the supply of plant protein, vegetable oil, and biofuel raised an additional $20 million in its first close of its Series D funding and current commitments.
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/terviva-raises-20-million-in-series-d-to-drive-product-development-and-market-expansion-300818243.html
Nigerian waste management startup, WeCyclers, has won the King Baudouin Foundation African Development Prize receiving N81.4 million (US$225,000) in funding.
https://technext.ng/2019/03/25/recycling-startup-wecyclers-get-n81-4-million-winning-king-baudouin-foundations-african-development-prize/
change: WATER Labs is creating a portable toilet that does not require water and evaporates 95% of sewage without using energy.
https://www.compelo.com/water-technology-companies/
The household consumer brand Nilkamal has launched the innovative “Water Wheel” in partnership with an American firm, Wello. The revolutionary (literally!) design allows women to easily transport the water in a rolling drum eliminating the need for head loading. It has a carrying capacity of 45 litres (more than 2X of traditional methods) and made of durable plastic to withstand long, uneven surfaces while keeping the water hygienic and uncontaminated. The product has been tested for over 2000 kilometres and is leak-proof.
https://www.firstpost.com/india/the-walk-for-water-6307081.html
While Tala has a strong mission, Siroya also wants to build a successful, for-profit company. She wants to transform lives and tap into the 3 billion potential customers in the emerging global middle class.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/marissaperetz/2019/03/21/making-a-difference-and-making-profits/#36db3865529b
As a result of the trials, Esoko adopted a public-private partnership (PPP) business model proposed by CCAFS to allow the sustainable and equitable dissemination of CIS. The PPP is targeting farmers subscribing to the “Planting for Food and Jobs” (PFJ) initiative introduced by the Government of Ghana as part of its measures to improve food security and employment in the agricultural sector.
https://reliefweb.int/report/ghana/ccafs-informed-public-private-partnership-reaches-300000-farmers-climate-information
“Prakash’s leadership role at Maternova evolved swiftly based upon his combination of strategic leadership skills and ability to execute tasks and decisions at all levels,” shared Wirth. “We have worked with many, many students, recent graduates, consultants, and colleagues, but Prakash’s immediate understanding of the mission and vision of the company and his business acumen stood out.”
http://entrepreneurship.babson.edu/from-commander-to-student-to-fellow-to-ceo/
Griffith Foods, the global product development company from Chicago, USA, led the round with eighteen94 capital, the Kellogg Company’s venture capital fund.
https://vegconomist.com/health/kuli-kuli-closes-5m-series-b-funding-to-make-moringa-a-household-ingredient/
Ingressive Capital just launched its venture fund and investing in Africa. The fund is interested in cutting $50-100,000 checks to pre-seed and seed stage founders building tech-enabled African tech startups.
https://www.blackenterprise.com/ingressive-capital-investing-in-africa/
Today, Uganda joins the rest of the world to celebrate the International Women’s Day. The local theme for this year’s celebrations is Empowering Women Through Innovative Approaches to Social Protection; a Pre-requisite for Inclusive and Sustainable Development. Owen Wagabaza brings you profiles of some Ugandan women whose innovations are changing the world for the betterNatalie Bitature, Musana Carts
https://www.newvision.co.ug/new_vision/news/1495630/celebrating-women-innovators
“I lost on ‘Shark Tank,’ and it’s one of the best things that ever happened to me,” Polon says.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/confessions-of-a-shark-tank-loser-210445470.html
In just the past five years Rachel estimates her company has diverted 35,000 pounds of fabrics that otherwise would have ended up in a landfill, or worse.
https://abc7news.com/fashion/inside-tonle-san-franciscos-only-zero-waste-clothing-boutique/5164624/
Opportunity, they say, lies in adversity. Manoj Sinha, CEO of Husk Power Systems, could well vouch for this adage when he recalls how he abruptly had to quit his plush job in New York to take over the reins of the company he co-founded in 2008.
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/small-biz/entrepreneurship/generating-electricity-for-millions-husk-power-bolsters-modis-dream-of-power-to-all/articleshow/68213635.cms
Delhi-based Chakr Innovation has secured the 6th position. The innovative startup has developed the world’s first retro-fit emission control device for diesel generators. It uses technology to reduce emissions from diesel generators and bring down air pollution levels.
https://www.indianweb2.com/2019/02/27/herere-top-10-innovative-indian-companies-by-fast-company/
Fresh life toilets are a hygienic, clean facility and Sanergy are also creating a useable by-product from the waste. “Everyday we collect about 10 tonnes of waste from the community which we take to a central processing facility and convert into valuable by-product; such as pure protein which is very good animal feed used by farmers who have livestock.” – Edith Karimi.
https://www.kbc.co.ke/turning-waste-into-organic-fertiliser/
Back to the Roots, the fastest growing organic food & gardening company innovating the way families are connecting with food, announces today its $3M series C led by Central Garden & Pet (NASDAQ: CENT), the country’s leading lawn, garden and pet company. Central was joined by new investor Blue Scorpion Investments, a NYC-based consumer-facing venture capital fund. Back to the Roots will be using the capital to fuel its growth as leaders in the indoor gardening market with over a dozen new products in que to launch in 2019 and thousands of new retail partners including Walmart, Bed Bath & Beyond, Bloomingdale’s, Petco and Costco.
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/back-to-the-roots-expands-with-new-funding-and-retail-growth-300799593.html
Notably, biodegradable sanitary napkins manufacturer Saathi has come up as the third most innovative companies from India.
https://entrackr.com/2019/02/jiosaavn-oyo-fast-company/
Financial institutions are trying to reach those people as quickly and efficiently as possible and to offer them credit to be able to grow businesses, [and] basically it’s like a $5 trillion credit gap across emerging markets for small businesses. And so these financial institutions where I was working were struggling to scale and meet the huge amount of demand for credit from customers because they have really manual processes.
https://kenyoncollegian.com/news/2019/02/on-the-record-nicole-van-der-tuin-07/
The company first became known for its simple and popular grow-your-own-mushroom kits. Now it also has a line of organic cereal, but it’s who eats that cereal that’s most interesting. In 2018, the company finished its first full year as the cereal supplier for New York’s public schools, becoming the first organic cereal ever offered in a U.S. public school system. Now it’s working with Nature’s Path & the Urban School Food Alliance to bring organic cereals to 1 in 5 kids by 2020.
https://www.fastcompany.com/company/back-to-the-roots
Annie Ryu was inspired to create The Jackfruit Company in the summer of 2011. She was 21 years old and working in India to implement a maternal and child healthcare program that she and her brother had developed. Upon discovering jackfruit, Ryu saw an incredible opportunity to convert an underutilized crop into nutritious, delicious food, while also providing an income opportunity to local farming families.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/meimeifox/2019/02/19/8-mission-driven-companies-reinventing-the-packaged-food-industry/#2ab737751d57
Monisha Narke, founder and chief executive officer, RUR Greenlife said, “This form of circular economy is highly sustainable and is a holistic solution to waste management. It not just results in waste management but also aids in remediation by replenishing nutrients back to soil, mitigates greenhouse gases generated due to transportation of waste from source to landfills.”
https://www.hindustantimes.com/mumbai-news/goregaon-residents-convert-waste-to-wealth-develop-fruit-vegetable-garden/story-ypvmMswj4rdk6zvwaQ9DQI.html
Providence-based Sproutel has now developed two remarkable — and successful — interactive, smart stuffed toys to assist children with complex health challenges.
https://www.golocalprov.com/business/Sproutel-May-Be-RIs-Most-Innovative-Company-See-What-CEO-Horowitz-Says-t
Ingressive Capital has unveiled an online platform for early stage founders of businesses in Africa to assist them with between $50,000 and $100,000 “First Cheque” in 30 days or less.
https://guardian.ng/news/nigeria/national/ingressive-capital-unveils-online-application-for-startups-in-africa/
CleanChoice Energy, a renewable energy company that empowers people and businesses to cut emissions and live cleaner lives, has launched CleanChoice Energy Clean Furnace. The new service allows people to offset the harmful carbon pollution created from their home heating and take an important step towards a carbon neutral home.
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cleanchoice-energy-launches-clean-furnace-program-300790835.html
Folia Filters: the world’s first water filter for pennies, not dollars, a mass market staple for emerging markets Folia Water’s flagship product is the Folia Filter, a simple, antimicrobial paper …
Diesel generators are extensively used in India for power back-up, emitting unburned diesel or soot. In areas where there is no connection to electrical grids, diesel generators are the primary source of energy, and are used on average for eight hours a day.
https://www.unenvironment.org/news-and-stories/story/turning-diesel-ink-india
After appearing on the program In October, Sara Polon, founder of Washington, D.C.-based soup company Soupergirl, is riding a wave and prepping to raise somewhere between $500,000 and $1.5 million in seed funding to sustain the momentum, the Washington Business Journal reports.
https://www.bizjournals.com/bizwomen/news/latest-news/2019/01/soupergirl-raising-funds-to-fuel-post-shark-tank.html?page=all
This is a process known as zero waste, a radical notion that forward-thinking fashion-industry types are finally waking up to. Faller cuts large scraps down to make clothing like tea-length wrap dresses, coats and tops, while smaller scraps are spun into yarn-like material to be woven into other new clothing. Whatever’s left, even the smallest scraps, is made into gift cards, notebooks and hang tags.
https://www.sfchronicle.com/style/article/Tonle-brings-zero-waste-women-s-fashion-to-13550039.php
Mohammad Modarres, founder and chief executive officer of New York-based Abe’s Meats, produced the first-of-its-kind “interfaith meat” in response to a wave of anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim incidents following the 2016 presidential election in the United States. He hosted a dinner uniting the Jewish and Muslim communities to tackle the rise in bigotry and learned quickly that serving halal and kosher foods in the same space was a “logistical nightmare and really expensive,” Mr. Modarres said.
https://www.foodbusinessnews.net/articles/13170-three-big-ideas-in-food
Krimanshi Technologies: International agri-business awardee by the UN and the latest debutant in the Forbes ‘30 under 30’ list, the company upcycles surplus farm and food waste into nutritious cattle feed. Operating in the Jodhpur district of Rajasthan, it supplies cattle feed to 200 farmers every day across Jodhpur, Pali, Nagaur and Bikaner.
https://www.thebetterindia.com/169324/yes-bank-cleantech-agritech-sustainable-future/
Through these smart kiosks, ARED Group is able to offer Wi-Fi internet services to its customers within a range of 100 meters, people can charge their phones, access a whole range of digital services.
https://www.sautitech.com/startups/ared-group-smart-kiosks/
Sara Polon is a University of Pennsylvania graduate who started a food business, changed her life, enlisted help from her family, and swears she is on a mission to deliver happiness to the world and dollars to her bank account.She calls herself Soupergirl.
https://www.dailyrepublic.com/all-dr-news/wires/business/with-a-fire-in-her-belly-and-a-hunger-for-profit-soupergirl-aims-to-change-lives/
The watershed moment in the renewed interest in insect protein came in 2013 when the United Nations issued a 200-page report entitled Edible insects: future prospects for food and feed security. Greg Sewitz, a co-founder of Exo, a company that produces protein bars that are made with Cricket Flour, was directly inspired by the UN report. A senior at Brown University at the time, Sewitz “was stunned by the realization that the U.S. is one of the only countries with ‘no culture of eating insects.’
https://interestingengineering.com/should-we-be-eating-bugs
The Chicago-based company offers portable, long-lasting, solar-powered lighting solutions. After meeting in graduate school while studying architecture and design, they created their company in 2010 on a shared belief that innovative design can be used to tackle real-world problems. Their hypothesis for LuminAID proved true when they were able to deploy the product to help victims of the Haiti earthquake that same year.
https://www.chase.com/news/122118-luminaid-plan-brighter-future
“The mission of Maisha Meds is to develop systems to improve access to high quality and affordable medicines. We are incredibly excited to work with Villgro in this mission, and have heard wonderful things about the support that Villgro provides companies working to scale health technologies in East Africa,” she said.
http://disrupt-africa.com/2018/12/2-kenyan-e-health-startups-secure-grants-from-villgro/
Craig Wichner, 49, founder and managing partner for Farmland LP, a fund manager that invests in converting conventional farmland to regenerative, organic farming. “It has so many benefits to the environment, to human society,” he says. “But we’re also demonstrating that you can grow a great, healthy, wonderful food and be more profitable than conventional agriculture systems.”
https://www.forbes.com/sites/devinthorpe/2018/12/12/how-investing-in-regenerative-agriculture-can-help-stem-climate-change-profitably/#2d3800843e5c
“We have a longstanding relationship with the CSD team and are excited for the value their partnership will add for our Skywalk subscribers. Our customers will have a wider variety of energy supply choices available at lower costs, whether they have one building or a portfolio of properties,” said Shannon Sentman, SOL VISTA CEO & Co-Founder.
https://www.prweb.com/releases/sol_vista_partners_with_csd_energy_advisors_for_energy_procurement_customer_support/prweb15990679.htm
Folia Water’s value proposition involves the distribution of silver-infused filter papers that cost as low as Tk 30 and thus provide the opportunity to the low-income community to have filtered water within an affordable range.
https://www.thedailystar.net/business/global-business/news/inclusive-business-models-safe-water-1672789