This archive report was first published on 28 October 2019.
On October 28, 2019, the MAN Impact Accelerator announced its third cohort, featuring eight promising social business startups from Europe, Brazil, and Africa.
Africa was represented by Nigeria's Arone and Uganda's Zem.bo, both of which were selected from over 300 applications from more than 40 countries.
Arone is building Africa's largest aerial logistics infrastructure for healthcare, utilizing smart drones to deliver blood and medical supplies to remote villages within 15 minutes. In contrast, Zem.bo provides affordable electric motorcycles for motorcycle taxi drivers in Africa, offering a pay-as-you-go model with the possibility of owning the asset after two years.
Other startups in the cohort include:
- Suma, a fair and direct trading platform connecting smallholder farmers with regular food buyers in Brazil.
- Eu Vo, a transportation platform connecting trained drivers with elderly people with reduced mobility in Brazil.
- Nina, an online platform to track, standardize, and centralize harassment cases in urban mobility in Brazil.
- Koiki, an inclusive and green last-mile delivery network in Spain that employs people from vulnerable populations.
- Addressya, a platform leveraging new technologies to make physical addresses available to everyone in Europe.
- XYT, a new generation vehicle manufacturer developing a light, modular, durable, and electric vehicle platform for sustainable urban logistics in Europe.
According to Arunima Singh, Accelerator program lead from Yunus Social Business, the selected founders embody the enormous opportunity to harness the power of business to impact people's lives in various geographies.
“At Yunus Social Business, we believe in the power of business to end poverty. A social business is a for-profit company with a social mission at its core, 100% dedicated to solving human problems,” Singh said.
“Right now, we are immersed in how we can create jobs for vulnerable groups in Spain. With the MAN Impact Accelerator, we look forward to learning more about the difficulties and challenges that can be found in other regions.”
Nerea Ortiz García from Koiki added, “The results from previous programs were astonishing – the social businesses on average doubled their revenues and 4x’ed their impact over the course of the program. We look forward to working with these companies from different backgrounds, countries, and impact sectors.”
