Impact Investment Exchange Asia (“IIX”) has launched its first Impact Accelerator programme in the Philippines, an intensive in-country programme designed to accelerate early-stage social enterprises (SEs) that have high potentials to create positive social and environmental impact at scale.
The programme targets early-stage SEs that have pilot-tested their business model and established proof of concept. The Call for Applications was formally launched at the Digital Strategies for Development Summit last 2-3 October, and closes on 7 November 2014. Successful SEs will be selected by end of December 2014, followed by a programme kick-off in January 2015.
Over a period of six months, the four selected SEs will receive a seed capital, a tailored one-to-one mentorship and ongoing advisory services provided by IIX and ASSIST. The selected SEs will also have the opportunity to raise future rounds of funding on IIX’s Impact Partners platform, Asia’s leading private placement platform for Impact Investing.
In selecting its pioneer cohort of SEs, the Accelerator will focus on the following areas: stage of SEs, whether the enterprise has tested their business model and established proof of concept; strength of value proposition, if the enterprise provides meaningful solutions to a problem that affects the poor or marginalized; preferred fit with five focus sectors, if it operate in agriculture, energy, water, health or education; and scalability of business.
“The Impact Accelerator programme’s launch in the Philippines is perfectly timed when SE activity is rapidly growing and socially-minded entrepreneurs are working to address challenges across various sectors including agriculture, energy, water, health and education. The programme supports the selected SEs through the early stages, by shortening the time needed to grow their business and impact more lives,” said IIX Business Development executive Amy Duffuor, at the launch earlier this month.
Impact Accelerator is run in collaboration with Philippine partner, the Asia Society for Social Improvement and Sustainable Transformation (ASSIST), a Manila-based international non-government organisation focused on capacity building. ASSIST promotes sustainable practices through public-private partnerships and social initiatives to address social problems in the developing world, with focus on Asia and Africa.
IIX is a Singapore-based organisation providing SEs in Asia greater access to investment capital, allowing them to more rapidly expand the impact of their activities. It offers three investment platforms: Impact Accelerator, Impact Partners and Impact Exchange. IIX’s sister non-profit, Shujog, assists social enterprises through its proprietary impact assessment, research, advocacy and advisory work.
More information can be found at www.asiaiix.com and www.assistasia.org. For queries about Impact Accelerator, please contact [email protected] or visit their website at www.asiaiix.com/impact-accelerator/.
