23 November 2021, Seoul - Impact Collective Announces the Winners of its Community-driven Investment and Accelerator Program for the SDGs

The top 10 winners of the 2021 Impact Collective Accelerator Program were announced. The winning startups were selected through a community voting process on the program’s blockchain-powered platform and will receive a total of $500K investment from the Impact Collective fund.

Impact Collective, a community-driven global accelerator program for impact-driven startups and co-hosted with UNDP and its Youth Co:Lab programme, announced the top 10 winners of the 2021 program. The top 10 teams will receive a total of USD 500K from the Impact Collective fund to scale up their ground-breaking solutions and accelerate the achievement of SDGs in the region.

The 2021 program was launched this August and had received over 400 entries from 39 countries. The entries were evaluated by the Impact Collective Committee on several parameters, including business model, product/service, impact strategy, and founding team credentials.

After a rigorous assessment, 45 innovative startups from 13 countries were selected and the teams took part in a highly-curated 10-week virtual program in which they:

• Received mentoring from 70+ industry experts
• Participated in workshops on impact-profit alignment
• Engaged in the regional Impact Ecosystem Mapping Dialogue hosted by UNDP Seoul Policy Centre and the Citypreneurs network
• Joined fireside chat series with world-class business leaders
• Gained access to 1,700+ Impact Collective’s community network

At the end of the program, a Demo Day took place on November 8-10 and the 45 teams presented their final pitch to a group of investors, seasoned entrepreneurs, ecosystem builders, policymakers, and Community Voters from the Impact Collective Community. An audience of over 300 people joined the finale of the program to show support and asked questions to conduct due diligence.

After the Demo Day, voting for the final team was held on the program’s blockchain-powered platform from November 11 to 12. A total of more than 240 community members, including Community Voters, industry experts, and an investment committee, participated in the voting process, after which the 10 teams with the most votes were selected as the winners. The top 10 companies with the most votes are:

• INGINE (Korea) -  Develops wave energy solutions that can replace conventional, polluting sources of energy in remote islands and coastal areas
• Mayani (Philippines) – Farm-to-table digital platform empowering the lives of smallholder farmers by directly connecting the community to consumers and retailers 
• Moreloop (Moreloop) – Digital platform connecting fabric factories to collect and resell high-quality and re-processed industrial fashion waste
• Onnow (Bangladesh) - Impact-driven internet restaurant platform that utilizes technology, virtual menu concepts, and digital branding to help small and medium-sized restaurants
• Ooca (Thailand) - Telemental health platform available on mobile and web apps, that provides virtual counseling services by mental health professionals in Thailand
• PillTech (Cambodia) - Online pharmaceutical marketplace where pharmacists can purchase medications in a safe and legal way
• The Green Collective (Singapore) - Provides a Retail-as-a-Service (RaaS) model to sustainable D2C brands
• CarbonClick (New Zealand) -  Provides technology solutions that enable businesses to measure, reduce and offset carbon footprints in a simple, and transparent way 
• HandyMama (Bangladesh) - On-demand home service platform where users are connected to trained and verified service providers such as professional cleaners
• Happy Grocers (Thailand) - D2C online marketplace and popup markets for sustainably grown agricultural products

UNDP Seoul Policy Centre, which provided the impact pillar throughout the program in collaboration with the World Federation of  United Nations Associations, also selected 6 startups based on their present and prospective impact performance as UN-supported Impact Award prize winners, to recognize their potential of contributing to the achievement of the SDGs in the region. The selected 6 teams are:

• Ooca (Thailand) - Telemental health platform available on mobile and web apps, that provides virtual counseling services by mental health professionals in Thailand
• KNP Arises (India) – Works on recycling used cooking oil to produce biodiesel, to tackle the issue of discarded used oil that amount to 2,200M litres per year in India
• Veda (Nepal) - All-in-one platform with tools to manage operations, finances, communications, and teaching-learning, for all stakeholders in education including administrators, teachers, and students.
• TapEffect (Cambodia) – Provides a holistic and affordable solution to bring clean, safe piped tap water to rural communities
• Komerce (Indonesia) – Digital platform that connects rural youth and SMEs in Indonesia & Southeast Asia, to create e-commerce jobs for youth and to promote the economic growth of community
• Todoworks (Korea) – Develops light-weight, affordable and smart mobility assistive solutions for wheelchair users

More about ‘Impact Collective’

Impact Collective is a community-driven investment and acceleration program for startups focusing on opportunities in Asia-Pacific, and runs in partnership with Citypreneurs - a UN-backed growth initiative for startups to scale the SDGs, TheVentures - a Seoul-based investor and incubator for early-stage startups, and Weave - a creative collective. The program is co-organized with UNDP as part of its Youth Co:Lab initiative, co-led by UNDP and Citi Foundation since 2017, to empower and invest in youth entrepreneurs across the Asia-Pacific to create innovative and sustainable solutions towards achieving the SDGs through leadership and social innovation. The Korean chapter of Youth Co:Lab, led by the UNDP Seoul Policy Centre, seeks to support young and innovative impact-driven startups from Korea and developing countries tackle global development challenges.

Official Website: https://impactcollective.earth/