Supporting Mission-Driven Entrepreneurs
Stories about Alumni and Partners that appeared in the Press
A shocking 2011 report put the estimated use of female hygiene products in India at about 12 percent of all 355 million menstruating women. This figure is the result of twin barriers to access and affordability that force the other 88 percent to rely on unsanitary alternatives such as cloth, ashes and husk sand.
https://www.borgenmagazine.com/menstruation-in-india/
In 2012, serial entrepreneur Alan Paul established Eco Fuels Kenya (EFK) to explore the potential of croton, following early research that suggested promise. His company is now the driving the movement to bring croton biofuel to the mainstream.
http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/28/africa/croton-nuts-biofuel-aes/
In parts of Africa, women and girls sometimes spend four hours a day gathering wood for inefficient open cooking fires. Two Oregon MBA students came up with a solution: the EcoZoom stove, an insulated cast-iron stove that burns much more efficiently. The company started in Portland but its offices are now in Nairobi, Kenya—a testament to the good it’s done in the developing world. Post-Trumpocalypse, this could be the new La Cornue.
http://www.wweek.com/outdoors/2017/01/03/five-products-that-will-help-you-survive-the-cascadia-earthquake/
Emily Woods wants to make sure that everyone has access to a clean and safe toilet. She says that more than a billion people in the world do not have a toilet, and globally 1,000 children die every day from fecal related infections. Along with her team from Sanivation, Woods is turning fecal matter into fuel, and working to make the world healthier and more efficient.
https://www.engineering.com/DesignerEdge/DesignerEdgeArticles/ArticleID/14015/Sanivation-Turns-Waste-Into-Fuel-in-Kenya.aspx
Inspired by a desire to research poverty reduction strategies in the developing world, Amanda Judge left her work in the financial industry to study social and economic development in Ecuador. Upon arriving in Ecuador, Amanda quickly realized that the best way for communities to sustainably bring themselves out of poverty was through viable employment opportunities and holistic education programs.
https://www.thegoodtrade.com/features/faire-colleciton
The idea for Wecyclers was developed while I was in the US as a student at the MIT Sloan School of Management, following a five-year career as a corporate software engineer at IBM. I was assigned to a study project to help people at the bottom of the pyramid (people living on less than $2 a day), i decided to work on waste with focus on its uses, collection and processing.
http://smileandmobile.com/2015/10/29/tech-female-spotlight-bilikiss-adebiyi-abiola-ceo-wecyclers/
Arqlite turns plastic waste into value by manufacturing construction materials from all forms of plastic waste.
http://www.echoinggreen.org/fellows/sebastian-sajoux
U.S.-based software group LaborVoices provides a mobile phone based service allowing factory employees to anonymously report abuse, late wages, safety conditions and child labor.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-trafficking-idUSKBN14J01D
Through McQuillan’s prevention strategy, Baldor is partnering with companies such as Washington DC’s MISFIT Juicery, who recovers unsellable and blemished produce for its cold-pressed juices. Baldor will now be sending its food trim to MISFIT to be made into juices.
http://www.andnowuknow.com/behind-greens/baldor-specialty-foods-diverts-all-organic-waste-landfills/laura-hillen/52103#.WHpdVFMrKUk
For example, First Access has created technology that utilizes financial service provider data in innovative ways to provide credit scores to clients in informal markets. Initiatives like this one help mobilise capital for entrepreneurs who otherwise would not have access. We need to think harder about ways to give SME’s access to funding on terms that aren’t restrictive.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ambassador-amina-mohamed/africas-entrepreneurs-str_b_13876004.html
The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates 585 million people in sub-Saharan Africa lack access to electricity, with the electrification rate as low as 14.2% in rural areas.
The problem is most acute in East Africa, where only 23% of Kenyans; 10.8% of Rwandans; and 14.8% of Tanzanians have access to an electricity supply, according to the World Bank.
In spite of efforts to get people onto the grid, population growth has meant these figures stay fairly steady, with the majority of people still using costly and unhealthy forms of energy for cooking and lighting.
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-30805419
In the summer of 2007, Jeremy Litchfield ran a race in a new red T-shirt. By the end of the race, sweaty from the heat and humidity, Litchfield looked down and noticed that the lower half of his body was dripping with red dye.
https://bthechange.com/eco-friendly-clothing-on-the-run-de2ea8f6189a
Over the past few years, we’ve tracked the success of Farmland LP, a family of funds created to increase the economic yield of farmland through sustainable farming practices.
http://www.valuewalk.com/2016/12/farmland-lp-investing-sustainable-farmland-2016-update/
Ingressive, an investment group that backs top tech in West Africa, organised an investment tourism tagged “Tour of Tech,” recently in Nigeria, to convene Silicon Valley and Silicon Africa.
https://www.bellanaija.com/2016/12/ingressive-hosts-tour-of-tech-an-investment-tourism-to-convene-silicon-valley-and-silicon-africa/
SOL VISTA’s Skywalk™ SaaS platform was recently selected by the Daughters’ of the American Revolution to provide transparency for Constitution Hall’s energy and water consumption.
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2016/12/prweb13933972.htm
Manta Biofuel LLC, of Baltimore, is engaged in the production of algae-based, renewable crude oil that is cost competitive with traditional fossil-based crude.
http://thedailyrecord.com/2016/12/15/tedco-invests-1-9-million-in-maryland-startups/
“When the Zika epidemic hit, we were tracking the virus and we became aware of a gap in defending women against Zika. It’s just the basic question of how do you protect yourself during the day without having to slather your body with insecticide,” Wirth told Global News.
http://globalnews.ca/news/3126717/anti-zika-apparel-clothing-has-built-in-mosquito-repellant-for-women-expectant-moms/
The startup has been serving the nascent off-grid market for eight years. For most of that time, it has distributed solar LED lanterns. With a recent $300,000 USAID grant through that agency’s Development Innovation Ventures program, PowerMundo will scale up its pay-as-you-go offering.
https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/powermundo-pushes-to-scale-up-off-grid-solar-in-peru#gs.M2Gr2pg
When Gabi Lewis was studying at Brown University, he enjoyed powerlifting alongside his formal study of philosophy and economics. He was dabbling in different proteins when his roommate Greg Sewitz sent him a U.N. report about the many social and nutritional benefits of an insect diet. In that report from 2013, when Greg and Gabi were seniors, it said that “It is widely accepted that by 2050 the world will host 9 billion people. To accommodate this number, current food production will need to almost double.” It also reported that insects are a likely way of meeting the intense demand.
https://bondstreet.com/gabi-lewis-exo-protein/
They walk a fragile line. They must build networks with trusted government workers, the international business community, young students, and professionals. Many Afghan business leaders hope to attract investors who will bet on them to secure hard-won gains in human rights, especially for women.
https://www.fastcompany.com/3065740/startup-report/this-is-what-its-like-for-female-entrepreneurs-in-afghanistan
Born in Tanzania, Christian recycles plastic waste and turns them into environmentally friendly plastic lumber. With that action, he protects the environment by reducing deforestation in his region but also helps his community. As a child, Christian grew up in slums where he faced a massive number of plastics waste and unhealthy living conditions.
https://lelab.info/ecoact-tanzania-recycles-plastic-waste-and-turns-them-into-environmentally-friendly-plastic-lumber/
Wash Cycle, which has been around for six years, puts its own spin—pun incredibly intended—on industrial washing. They supply some of the standard laundering fair, including linens, sheets, towels, custodial supplies, floor mats, and clean clothes in bulk for universities and hospitals. They commit to the environmental bit, using all-natural detergents and high-efficiency laundry machines. But it’s the trip that the laundry takes that really sets it apart: Wash Cycle’s wares are carted around via bicycle to their local facilities. The company currently has campuses open in Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., and currently employs roughly 50, just about 40 of whom are stationed in Philly.
https://thephiladelphiacitizen.org/wash-cycle-laundry-gabriel-mandujano/
It was through a series of conversations with customers that Local Orbit realized it was perhaps missing a bigger supply chain opportunity. The kinds of institutional buyers purchasing food from local farmers through Local Orbit include schools, hospitals, jails, and universities—a market worth up to $82 billion annually, Block says. And even though these large institutions aren’t typically known for boutique food choices, they also aren’t immune to the national locavore trend. These days, people want to know the story behind the food they eat, she points out.
http://www.xconomy.com/detroit-ann-arbor/2016/11/03/local-orbit-out-to-boost-food-supply-chain-for-farmers-institutions/
Juabar is a solar entrepreneurs’ network which has been based in Tanzania since 2013. The three-person company behind the initial model, of a solar panel attached to a hand cart, has swiftly progressed into the rural development world.
http://e4sv.org/juabars-media-hubs-bring-womens-health-tv-swahili-sesame-street-rural-tanzania/
Once the fresh-faced darling of the beverage industry, cold-pressed juice has arguably lost a bit of novelty. Gone are the days of the elusive It green juice, available only at boutique juice bars (and sipped as part of an alkalizing cleanse); today’s juice drinker has seemingly limitless options, several of which are available at her local Target store—and possibly backed by her favorite soda company, too. This isn’t a knock on cold-pressed juice inasmuch as it is to politely point out that the market is pretty saturated.Perhaps pre-empting such skepticism, Misfit Juicery—ostensibly just another cold-pressed juice enterprise—bluntly states on its website, “
https://www.vogue.com/article/juice-ugly-produce-food-waste-misfit
Faller’s goal is to fight back against some of the fashion industry’s biggest ills: textile waste and unjust labor practices. Tonlé, which is based in Cambodia and sells its products internationally, employs Cambodian women, pays them a fair wage and allows them to work reasonable hours ― and it makes all its clothing without sending a single scrap to landfills.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/tonle-fashion-company-zero-waste-fair-labor-clothing-cambodia_us_57ee9e2de4b024a52d2eb366
“As long as the market is stable and farmers can depend on it, those trees will be in the ground for at least 40 years,” – Emily Stone, founder of Uncommon Cacao.
https://www.greenbiz.com/article/can-upscale-chocolate-uproot-deforestation-haiti
Tala founder Shivani Siroya on transforming microfinance & loans in emerging markets, using untraditional data & behavioral variables to build a global industry & being the CEO of Chris Sacca’s favorite portfolio company
http://thisweekinstartups.com/shivani-siroya-tala/
Essmart sells a wide range of vital technology, like solar lighting and smoke-reducing cook stoves, to rural communities in India. It does this by getting those products to 15 million local retail shops which it says count for 90 per cent of India’s $550bn annual retail spend. It has partnered with eyewear company Essilor, which is supplying it with low-cost reading glasses and UV-protective sunglasses, and has shifted 4,000 units of its products to date. As part of the collaboration, Essilor has trained Essmart’s field staff.
https://www.wired.co.uk/article/clearly-vision-prize-winners-announced
On June 22, 30 pharmacies and patent medical stores were shut down in Ajeromi-Ifelodun, a small area in Nigeria’s most populous state, Lagos. The update came from the Lagos State Ministry of Health, which sealed the stores for reportedly selling counterfeit drugs. Just weeks before, the Nigerian senate had passionately discussed a new bill that would sentence “culprits of sale and production of fake drugs” to life imprisonment.
https://www.borgenmagazine.com/sproxil-nigeria-fighting-counterfeit-drugs/
Their effortless absorption sparked an idea for Tropf: what if kids used video games to learn the same way? What if she could engineer a game to purposefully teach kids valuable concepts without them even noticing?
https://www.bizjournals.com/philadelphia/bizwomen/news/profiles-strategies/2016/09/startups-how-this-world-of-warcraft-junkie-got.html
Sara Polon is on a mission to save the world, one bowl of soup at a time.
http://wtop.com/food-restaurant/2016/09/soupergirls-recipe-for-success-leave-out-the-preservatives-and-the-meat/
The great outdoors are fun and relaxing but for our connected generation a constant source of power is almost as necessary as water. However, power banks can only last so long when you are on a week long bicycling or trekking adventure. This where a solar powered backpack would be so handy! Gandharv Bakshi and Lavina Mahbubani founded Lumos Design Technology Pvt. Ltd to design such amazing backpacks.
http://www.networkedindia.com/2016/09/07/5-startups-trail-blazers-clean-tech/
Designers at Maternova, an innovation hub geared toward the needs of pregnant women, have developed a line of clothing containing insect repellent with intentions of protecting expectant moms from Zika virus. The repellant used in the clothing, the designers told TakePart, protect the wearer from more than 40 types of insects and will last up to 50 washes.
https://mashable.com/2016/09/02/social-good-innovations-august-2016/#6oN5Xg.NgSqU
Nuru Energy began seven years ago with a simple notion: to build a sustainable, scalable solution to displace the dirty kerosene that, it is said, 1.6 billion people worldwide burn to generate light.
https://www.virgin.com/virgin-unite/sustainable-scalable-solution-dirty-kerosene
Assured Labor, Latin America’s leader in digital low-wage recruitment, announced today that the company has sold its service in Mexico – EmpleoListo – to OCCMundial.
https://lavca.org/2016/08/30/occmundial-acquires-assured-labors-service-mexico-empleolisto
Beth Bell, founder and president of Green Product Placement, has transformed mainstream product placement into “positive placement”. The US-based international media product placement company promotes and places only green, all natural, sustainable, socially enterprising and/or local entrepreneurial products in films, television shows and web media.
https://www.1millionwomen.com.au/blog/youre-going-be-seeing-more-solar-panels-movies-heres-why/
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 80 percent of medical equipment in some countries is donated or funded through foreign sources, but only 10 percent to 30 percent of the donations are ever put into operation. According to Robert Malkin, a professor of the practice of biomedical engineering at Duke University, “there is a great risk for every medical device donation that it’s going to hurt the recipient”.
https://www.engineeringforchange.org/news/patently-wrong-international-development/
With a licensing deal for the technology in place from University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, the startup is working on commercial development of technology for harvesting oil from algae. The system includes growing algae that is then skimmed using solar-powered harvesters. The conversion is completed through a process that exposes the algae to high pressure and temperatures, known as hydrothermal liquefaction.
https://technical.ly/baltimore/2016/07/21/manta-biofuel-algae-oil-sbir-imet/
A new video created by the National Science Foundation explains new research into using waste from pigs to create a more environmentally friendly alternative to the petroleum-based asphalt that is currently used in roads today.
https://www.popsci.com/roads-paved-with-pig-manure-could-mean-cleaner-future