#ThemeSpotlights: Meet Impact Collective’s Selected Early-Bird Impact Makers
When we began this project, we imagined a community with startups and experts working together to enrich their entrepreneurial visions and goals. Over the course of just a few weeks, we have been amazed by the reception you all have given us and the number of applications coming in from all over the world. We would like to share with you the first milestone in our goal to onboard 100 selected impact makers into our community-driven virtual investment and acceleration program (Curious about our program? Details here).
After receiving over a 100+ open-nominations on early-bird applications from 36 judges through our Impact Collective Platform, 21 Impact Makers received upvotes from the majority of the IC Review Committee consisting of 11 experts on impact, investment, and business!
🎉Without further ado, meet the first 21 Impact Makers and find out which of IC’s SDG-aligned themes they fall under:
Digitalization for equal opportunities for all
Asia and the Pacific has the largest number of internet users worldwide, reaching nearly 2.1 billion in 2018. In Southeast Asia alone, 3.8 million people become new internet users each month, resulting in forecasts for Southeast Asia’s digital economy to reach $240 billion by the year 2025. However, due to diverse economies and different speed of technology adoption across the region, many are still unconnected and are at risk of being left behind. Building up #infrastructure and ensuring the #digitalreadiness of different groups in societies, particularly rural women, are essential for bridging the digital divide and opening up transformative digital opportunities for all.
Meet our teams using technology to provide equal opportunities for all:
Astrome (has developed innovative wireless products that give fibre-like bandwidth at a fraction of the cost of fibre to help telecom operators deliver reliable internet services to suburban and rural areas.
Liquidstar has built the “Uber” for electricity and the electron e-fuel stations of the future.
Mamaucan automatically sends daily voice messages of early-education-related tasks to guide today’s parenting just like Siri. The voice messages are made into 365-day parenting plans. Users can raise children well without higher education background.
Inclusive health and quality of life
By 2050, one in four people in Asia and the Pacific will be over 60 years old. The number of older persons is expected to increase from an estimate of 548 million in 2019 to nearly 1.3 billion by 2050. They will face challenges around accessibility, health and inclusion, and will be looking for innovative solutions to help people age well. Given the current Covid-19 outbreak and in preparation for similar future health crises, it is especially important to improve accessibility to healthcare services and lifesaving procedures, and create sustainable innovation in cities to ensure quality of life across generations.
Meet our teams improving health and quality of life for all, at all ages:
Daatrics has developed a miniaturized child well-being monitor that fulfils the need for continuous monitoring to prevent a variety of life and health threatening cases impacting children, especially in situations where parents are not able to directly supervise them.
Freedom One Life inspires and empowers people living with a physical disability. Enabling people around the world to expect and demand the same standard of living and mobility that a non-disabled person takes for granted.
YoungHappy supports the elderly to pursue an active lifestyle, which is the most effective means of maintaining physical and mental well-being, through a mix of community building, offline events, and online contents to help them stay connected with their peers and the society.
Genealogy is developing novel machine learning and deep learning algorithms by applying techniques from computer science, statistics, and bioinformatics to provide DNA prediction solutions through MatchDonor.org for blood cancer patients.
Future of work and economic growth
Technological developments, as well as parallel megatrends such as urbanization, climate change and globalization are rapidly redefining the nature of work and jobs. While this is creating new business models and new ways to engage in work, automation and computerization are also replacing tasks and leading to job loss. To achieve inclusive growth, we must prepare people for future work transitions, particularly women, persons with disabilities, the elderly and youth, among others, for them to take advantage of opportunities in the STEM and green fields, as well as the gig economy. Indeed, workers will likely have many gigs over the course of their careers and will have to be lifelong learners due to increasing blurred lines around formal employment.
Meet our teams fostering more sustainable cities through inclusive communities and economical businesses:
Rezi has developed an AI-powered resume builder that lets you quickly create optimized, ATS-friendly resumes and cover letters tailored to specific job descriptions.
Kernel advocates for the social inclusivity of migrant wives in Korea through self-reliance. They provide digital marketing skills training and connect them to Korean SMEs needing help in scaling globally by integrating local relevance in their marketing strategies.
Skilvul aims to help stop youth unemployment and bridging the skills gap especially for tech talents in Indonesia by providing relevant digital skills to youth through training, certifying, and connecting to jobs all in one platform.
Sustainable agriculture and food
Most countries in Asia and the Pacific have slowed down or even reversed progress to ending hunger, achieving food security, improving nutrition and promoting sustainable agriculture. However while smallholder farmers and their families do make up a very large portion of the poor and hungry, cities in the region have seen a rise in urban malnutrition, including nutrient deficiency and obesity. Shared rural-urban actions across sectors — such as food systems, health, water, sanitation, social protection, education and disaster resilience, in particular climate change and extreme weather-related shocks — will not only produce lasting effects on the region’s economies, but also transform food producers into entrepreneurs and stewards of the environment.
Meet our teams adopting sustainable food and agriculture practices to meet present and future needs:
JJ&Companies is a tech-based company for aquaculture engineering. Its automation system will provide automatic control for valves, pumps, feeds and power management with collected data from sensors as well as remote diagnostics based on cyber security.
Gint provides telematics, hybrid transmission, and a driverless system that can be installed in tractors. Farmers can maintain or operate their tractors via app with fleet management and self-driving services.
Sensegrass provides the world’s first LoT + AI interface technology. They provide soil diagnosis and prediction tools for nutrients and other values that can improve soil efficiency.
iFarm develops solutions for modern urban farming. They offer fully automated sustainable, eco-friendly and economically viable turnkey solutions suitable for production sites of any size. Such as vertical farm design, construction and SAAS, seeds, fertilizers and technical.
Green energy and the environment
Economies in Asia and the Pacific consume more than half of the global energy supply and include important oil and gas producers. Today, the region is dealing with the consequences of local pollution, climate change, and volatile energy prices, due to its over-reliance on carbon-based energy sources. Efforts must be made to ensure equal access to energy for all, integrate clean energy in national and regional energy systems, and build green infrastructure and transportation options to ensure sustainable cities throughout the region.
Meet our teams protecting the environment through green energy, infrastructure and transportation solutions for cities:
RIZOME is pioneering climate-positive bamboo engineered lumber with a goal of sequestering 10 gigaton of CO2 by 2050.
Water Life Systems is engaged predominantly in the area of environmental services and distributed systems manufacturing that transform wastewater and contaminated ground and surface waters into reusable resources.
DASH is a sharing platform for electric scooter and personal mobility. DASH offers convenient seamless commuting sharing service by providing access to shared exclusive electric scooter positioned in Major Subway Stations.
Circular economy and the future of waste management
The growth of Asia and the Pacific’s urban economies is tied to rapid unplanned urbanization, as well as rising unsustainable lifestyles and consumption patterns. The region accounts for over 60% of key fast-moving consumer goods sectors in the world, which results in large amounts of pollution, waste production and resource mismanagement. Adopting solutions that support a circular economy, which is estimated to generate $4.5 trillion in value, will require us to design out waste and pollution, keep products and materials in use, as well as regenerate natural systems.
Meet our teams changing the way we manage waste and resources to protect our planet:
Aether Beauty is the first fully sustainable makeup brand in prestige beauty. Clean, Vegan, Cruelty-Free, with Organic, Fair Wage and Child Labor Free Ingredients, plus fully recyclable packaging, the first in the industry!
BarePack’s practical day to day solution makes takeaway sustainable, fights disposables and the single-use waste culture, with a focus on education and the vision that we will all one day be zero-waste heroes.
Damogo is an all-in-one mobile app where anyone can purchase and rescue perfectly good, unsold food from restaurants/retail and “ugly” produce from farms at half price.
SEADS transforms river plastic into wealth by offering a complete consulting service to design, produce and install river barriers capable of collecting up to 100% of macro-plastic waste and re-direct it towards recycling.
📅 REGULAR SELECTION ROUND IS STILL ONGOING!
📌 Are you a team looking for community support and funding?
Apply by 5 SEPT for a chance to be part of the top 100 startups selected for up to USD 100K in Fast Track investments and up to USD 500K in program investments. 👉 http://impactcollective.earth/
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Join our online community platform where industry leaders, budding entrepreneurs, and user communities converge and make positive impacts together. 👉 https://impactcollective.moim.co/
