SAP.iO: MWC Open Innovation Challenge; the topics include CIRCULAR ECONOMY & SUSTAINABILITY and SMART CITIES & SMART MOBILITY (March 1st).
TRUMPF: MWC Open Innovation Challenge, supporting promising start-ups that wish to play a key part in shaping the industry of the future (March 1st).
Because International: a free, online acceleration program for early-to-middle stage entrepreneurs with socially innovative products (March 1st).
Stay tuned on Linkedin and Twitter for more useful resources and updates on online programs, fellowships, awards, competitions, incubators, accelerators.
If you opt for funding advisory services (600+ impact investing opportunities), you are just one step away.
Labor Rights Project Manager, can be located anywhere in the world but must be able to work at least part of the hours from 9-5 Eastern Time
People and Culture Coordinator, fully remote and we’re able to legally hire from most countries, however prefer applicants who are open to work during North, Central and South American Time Zones, as well as African and European Time Zones (UTC-8 to UTC+1 preferred)
Program Director, Accelerator & Chief People Officer; Washington, DC, Nairobi, Kenya, or Delhi, India are preferred locations for this position, though others may work
Managing Director, Corporate Engagement, flexible to all locations where TNC has an established office location (United States preferred)
UX Designer (Mid-Level to Sr.), At least 4 hours time zone overlap with US Pacific Time or US Eastern Time working hours for real-time collaboration
Sustainability Marketing Manager, For the right candidate, this position could be worked remotely from any location in the US or Europe
Communications Manager, Remote with a possibility of working from an office in Washington, DC., flexible, with preference for candidates in US or European time zones
Applications always open/accepted on a rolling basis:
Y Combinator: working intensively with the companies for three months, to get them into the best possible shape and refine their pitch to investors on Demo Day (while the deadline for on-time applications was September 8, applications will be accepted until the batch starts in January).
UpLink: Innovation Portal, inviting to submit your innovation on UpLink as an entry point for your solution to the platform, to engage with the UpLink community, and be the first to hear of upcoming challenges which match the topical issue you are addressing.
SEIP: an online incubation program matches quality seeds with the best soil for sprouting.
Decade Ventures: looking for founders building the tools and businesses that can help usunderstand and adapt to a world changed by the climate crisis.
FoodFutureCo: a scale-up accelerator in food, agriculture, social, & environmental entrepreneurship.
Thiel Fellowship: giving $100,000 to young people who want to build new things instead of sitting in a classroom.
Grid.Lab: accelerating energy transition and to support all parties involved in the changing energy field in Scandinavia.
MATTER: a membership-based incubator and an accelerator for healthcare startups at all stages of growth by creating access to learning and development opportunities, capital and customers and a dynamic community; Chicago roots and global reach with many of the members from outside the US.
Founders Factory: accelerating exceptional founders solving global problems using technology; the focus programs include Home&Hygiene accelerator.
Baltic Sandbox: Women in Tech, empowering female founders and supporting Women in Tech globally.
Dassault Systèmes: Electro Mobility Accelerator, accelerating successful mobility innovations, while optimizing cost, quality and customer experience, via Cloud or on Premis.
Muellners: LEARN, an online Growth Accelerator for entrepreneur talent to break into social sustainable product engineering.
Solar Impulse Foundation: a challenge for solutions protecting the environment in a profitable way, and bringing them to decision makers to help them adopt more ambitious environmental targets and energy policies.
DART Labs: an accelerator helping the startups working towards healthier humans and a healthier planet from Switzerland and Europe to enter the US market.
The Difference Incubator: accelerator programs designed to help businesses at all stages of growth to set themselves up for long-term sustainability and social or environmental impact across the world.
The Female Founders Lab: Pitch Labs for female founders with ideas/ventures impacting society.
Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation: looking for social entrepreneurs with dynamic ideas to provide them with 3 years of unrestricted capital (totaling $300,000) and provide rigorous on-going support by joining their board of directors for the 3 years and partnering with the leader to help them to build capacity in their organization and scale their impact.
UpLink and the Global Plastic Action Partnership: Global Plastic Innovation Network, crowdsourcing diverse innovations and empowering a community of high-potential innovators to tackle the plastic pollution (submissions reviewed every 8-12 weeks).
February 1-15:
SE Greenhouse: practical tools, networks and resources to validate your idea, understand your customer, and formalize your growth strategies from fundraising to social impact measurement (February 1st).
Swedish Institute: She Entrepreneurs, a leadership program for highly motivated women entrepreneurs in the Middle East and North Africa region who are building successful and sustainable businesses with the potential to make a difference in their societies (February 2d).
SE Greenhouse: guiding you through the basics to launch your social enterprise (February 2d).
Hitachi: Innovation Challenge for Carbon Management for business solutions to help tackle one or several of the following problems: Environmental Data Collection / Carbon Measurement; New Services using Environmental Data (February 6th).
Climate-KIC: ClimAccelerator, looking for bold European climate entrepreneurs to lead the carbon removal industry (February 6th).
Impact HUB: an incubator for early stage Circular Economy startups located in Austria, Germany, Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, Europe (February 7th).
Global Warming Mitigation Project: Keeling Curve Prize, looking for projects with a proven track record of taking greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere (February 10th or when 500 applications is reached).
Cisco: Global Problem Solver Challenge aiming to recognize new business ideas that leverage technology for social impact from early-stage entrepreneurs around the world (February 11th).
Fit for Life Foundation: awarding grants of EUR 100,000 each to 3 non-profit organizations or social enterprises that are pioneering projects to promote lifelong fitness and health (February 15th).
SE Greenhouse: an 8 week program designed to help you develop, test, and vet your ideas in a risk-free and supportive environment (February 15th).
CityCoins: Stacks Accelerator, 3-month mentorship-driven track for teams who want to build the future of civic engagement (February 15th).
Stay tuned on Linkedin and Twitter for more useful resources and updates on online programs, fellowships, awards, competitions, incubators, accelerators.
If you opt for funding advisory services (600+ impact investing opportunities), you are just one step away.
SBTN Technical Director; Remote, worldwide (preference for the individual to be based between GMT-8 and GMT+1 time zones)
Semilla Nueva Development Director, remotely from anywhere, though there is a preference for candidates working from locations near a major airport and within 3 hours of the local time zone (GMT -6)
Senior Research Manager (Global Health and Development), open to individuals in (almost) any country – this position requires regular meetings with staff in many time zones, including UTC +13, UTC +1, UTC -8, UTC -7, and UTC -6
Design Research Manager, working from a private space or optionally from a Greenpeace office if it is close by – either way, the working spaces will be digital
Global Product Manager – Energy and Sustainability (ESS), USA/Europe/Middle East/Asia (remote position and can be globally based)
Marketing Manager, Most countries and time zones are workable (though you may sometimes need to be working at times convenient for American or European audiences)
Development Consultant, work can be done in any geographic location, with a preference for someone within the Eastern Standard, Central Standard, or Pacific Standard Time Zone
Social Science Researcher; based in New Delhi, India; exceptionally strong candidates in other cities in India, or locations where BFA Global has an office or presence may also be considered – Nigeria, Kenya, Mexico, Colombia, or the US (Boston)
This is a blog post in the series “Resources for impact entrepreneurs”: Growth Opportunities for Impact Entrepreneurs. Part 5: Sustainability & Circular Economy Global and Regional Programs.
BSR: a global network of member companies, thought leaders, peers, and stakeholders—all focused on creating viable sustainability solutions.
Women in Cleantech and Sustainability: a network of professionals to further the roles of women in growing the green economy and making a positive impact on the environment.
Global Green Connect: an integrated sustainability network that provides a business accelerator program in Asia.
Google: Startup Advisor: SDG Program, empowering an ecosystem of entrepreneurs to reach the SDGs.
Awards, Hackathons, and Competitions:
EIT Manufacturing, Whirlpool EMEA, voestalpine, and EROSKI: BoostUp! BRIDGE, seeking to address challenges and solutions under EIT Manufacturing’s flagship: Low Environmental Footprint Systems & Circular Economy for Green Manufacturing.
Dassault Systemes: Shape the World of Tomorrow Challenge, inviting students from all over Europe, with a focus on Northern European countries, to design innovative solutions that solve some of today’s biggest sustainability challenges using the 3DEXPERIENCE platform.
Logrono, ecoembes, TheCircularLab: Circular Urban Challenge, a European competition between startups linked to the field of circular economy in which the best solutions are sought to address specific challenges that affect cities.
Siemens: Green factory co-creation challenge, identifying the most impactful opportunities in manufacturing where Siemens can support or partner to achieve more sustainability; the sectors include sustainable manufacturing, circular economy (EV battery recycling), sustainable procurement.
Enterprise Singapore: Sustainability Open Innovation Challenges for Startups and SMEs building a brighter future for the planet; sectors: sustainable materials, waste management, and many more.
Enactus World Cup: showcasing elite sustainability projects designed by university students from 37 countries.
Programs and Accelerators:
UNDP, Impact HUB: Accelerate2030, a global program supporting entrepreneurs from developing and emerging markets to scale their solutions towards the Sustainable Development Goals.
Climate Changes Hub: Startup Pilot Program, looking for Startups working in environmental sustainability; startups are expected to set up an office in the Comunidad Valenciana Digital District.
Sociedade Ponto Verde: digital open innovation program, focused on circular economy and digital disruption of packaging waste.
Accenture, World Economic Forum: Circulars Accelerator ’22, an action-oriented, a six-month accelerator program for early-to-growth-stage companies developing innovations towards a more circular economy.
Circular Valley: Circular Economy Accelerator for all start-ups with business concepts for the circular economy; the accelerator takes place in Wuppertal.
gener8tor: accelerating and Investing in Sustainability Tech Startups; while this program will be virtually held, parts of the program may be held in Chicago, Illinois if safety permits.
Startup Wise Guys: Sustainability Accelerator, meant for B2B startups with solid and passionate teams, global ambitions, and the power to execute; online and offsite format for startups from anywhere.
IMPACT KOMMONS: an accelerator for tech startups that have a combination of sustainability and business viability values.
Impact Club Accelerator: accelerating the creation of measurable social impact within the focus themes (SDGs), incl.sustainability.
Venice Sustainability Innovation Accelerator: VeniSIA Accelerator, a 7-month online program including the following phases, to support companies to identify, through an international call to action, and engage the most qualified researchers/start-uppers to carry out the sustainability.
Future Hub: Open Innovation Sustainability Accelerator, a kickstarter for startup & enterprise co-creation; five sustainability and GreenTech areas; geography: Baltic countries.
The Difference Incubator: accelerator programs designed to help businesses at all stages of growth to set themselves up for long-term sustainability and social or environmental impact across the world.
Toyota and ISDI: Toyota Startup Accelerator program, looking for innovative solutions in the startup ecosystem that work in the fields of comprising Circular Economy of Plastics and Life Cycle Footprint Ecosystem.
RaiseV: Startup Accelerator Programs and Corporate venturing Programs focusing on the convergence of the top influential technologies – IoT, AI & Blockchain – and four focus areas that ought to benefit from it, incl.circular economy.
100Accelerator: an accelerator for innovative solutions that have the ability to scale quickly and make a significant impact on one or more of the challenge areas (incl.circular packaging).
World Fair Trade Organisation, European Union: Small but Perfect, an accelerator programme of mentoring, funding and showcasing that connects fashion businesses across borders by encouraging transnational collaboration and transition to circular and sustainable models.
Global Portfolio Value Creation Fellow, Location: Americas (Seattle, Washington DC, San Francisco, New York, São Paulo, Buenos Aires, Mexico DF, Santiago And Miami Are Preferred Cities) Or Bangalore, India Or Nairobi, Kenya)
Specialist, Editorial Systems and Operations OR Assistant Operations Manager, Wiley office or remote, in Germany (Weinheim/Berlin), U.K. (Oxford/Chichester), USA (Hoboken/Medford)
Deputy Director, Grants, within EST and CET time zones (including all time zones and regions in between)
Project Portfolio Manager, based in Nairobi, Kenya. Exceptionally strong candidates in locations where BFA has an office or presence may also be considered – Colombia, India, Mexico, Nigeria, or the US
Cost and Pricing Analyst, US-based or West Africa location where Helen Keller has a country office – EST or GMT time zones preferred; other locations will be considered
Back End Engineer (Ruby on Rails), operations in Spain, Portugal and the UK, so you will be very welcome to join us if you live and are eligible to work in any of these 3 countries
SPRING: IMPACT Startup Visa Accelerator for purpose-driven entrepreneurs seeking to anchor their business in Canada (the next cohort kicking off in January 2022).
Omdena: AI Incubator, the only AI development program in the world exclusively for startups and impact ventures (next available start date: February 17th, ‘22).
Euclid Network: Top 100 Women in Social Enterprise Initiative, celebrating women in the social enterprise sector, spotlighting their impact journey and achievements, connecting them to learn from and inspire each other (the list will be released on International Women’s Day, 8th March 2022 and will be celebrated with an award ceremony at EN’s Impact Summit on the 24th and 25th March 2022).
XPRIZE: Carbon Removal, a four-year global competition for innovators and teams from anywhere on the planet to create and demonstrate solutions that can pull carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere or oceans ultimately scaling massively to gigaton levels, locking away CO2 permanently in an environmentally benign way (applications accepted through Earth Day 2025).
Visa Foundation and Village Capital: Greentech Europe 2022 initiative, a new project dedicated to supporting gender diverse ventures creating sustainable economic, environmental and social solutions across Europe (the program will launch in November).
One10: Activate and Amplify virtual accelerator, enabling purpose-driven people to shape and scale startups for positive social and environmental impact.
Transformational Business Network: Business Continuity and Recovery (BCR), an intense 6-month program and mindset-shifting experience, with personalised support from experienced entrepreneurs, investors, content experts and powerful business tools; geography: Kenya and Uganda.
Kindle VC: mentorship (incubator/accelerator) and EIR support for startups in US and India; the focus sectors include agritech and social impact.
MovingWorlds: S-GRID, New Social Enterprise Support Program, helping social enterprises build revenue partnerships with the corporate sector to become more integrated into global value chains.
Catalyst Fund: Inclusive Fintech Accelerator, supporting early-stage innovators in emerging markets who are building affordable, appropriate and accessible inclusive fintech solutions designed for the world’s 3 billion underserved.
HortiHeroes: startup programs for food & flower startups.
StartLife: accelerating food & agtech startups with lasting impact in Europe (pre-applications open).
leAD Sports & Health Tech Academy: accelerators in Berlin and Lake Nona, supporting and growing early-stage sports & health tech startups globally.
Story Cube: free online sprints for edtech entrepreneurs covering strategy, sales and storytelling, designed to help ambitious edtech entrepreneurs inspire, pitch and sell with ease.
EIT Food: supporting innovative impactful agrifood entrepreneurs and startups to deliver new food innovations and businesses across Europe (incubator, accelerator, scaleup program).
Beamline Accelerator: climate accelerator for cleantech startups working in the fields of novel materials, agriculture, bioresources or CO2 offsetting (January 16th).
Kellogg-Morgan Stanley: Sustainable Investing Challenge, an annual competition for teams of graduate students from around the world to develop and pitch creative financial approaches to tackle pressing social and environmental challenges (January 16th).
African Union: Civic Tech Fund, a pan-African competition that aims to accelerate innovative civic tech initiatives that have the potential to lead to citizen-led transformative action across the African continent (January 16th).
EU Industry Days: Pitching Contest, welcoming all business ideas that support the transition to a sustainable, digital and resilient economy (January 18th).
MIT: Solv[ED] Youth Innovation Challenge, designed to spark a sense of agency in young people aged 24 and under, encouraging, inspiring, and supporting them to become problem-solvers in their communities and the world (January 18th).
MIT: IDEAS Social Innovation Challenge, an annual social entrepreneurship program enabling MIT student-led teams to apply their education and expertise in collaboration with community partners to address social and environmental challenges around the world; team members can be recruited from anywhere in the world (January 19th).
Grow F: a 3-month online accelerator program that supports highly innovative and scalable female-led ventures; eligibility: startups from Europe and beyond (January 20th).
Tourban: Sustainable Urban Tourism Acceleration Programme, calling European SMEs in the tourism industry (January 20th).
Enterprise Singapore: Sustainability Open Innovation Challenge 2021 – Round 2, the third edition of the challenge with challenge statements in key sustainability areas such as sustainable materials, waste management, and many more (January 24th).
MediaFutures: looking for artists and startups eager to reshape the media value chain through innovative, inclusive and participatory applications of data and user-generated content (January 27th).
SPARTA: Cybersecurity Hackathon to identify and design solutions to some of the recurring problems or come up with entirely new solutions which would take cybersecurity to the next level (January 27th).
Impactionable: Social Innovation Competition, providing a cash prize, mentorship, and community to aspiring social entrepreneurs around the world (January 27th).
Smart Cities Connect: Smart Cities Startup Challenge for startups to bring new technologies and solutions to cities, defense, and national security to help solve major challenges including transportation, health, energy, resiliency, security and climate change (January 28th).
Startupbootcamp in partnership with Telecel Group: ASIP Accelerator, looking for the next generation of African startups disrupting industry sectors including AgriTech & Supply Chain, IoT & Connectivity, Machine Learning (Data Analytics), Cybersecurity, Clean Tech and RegTech (January 28th).
Sente: FoodTech: Health & Wellness, investing in early-stage startups with novel ingredients, snacks, packaging and technology that can meet the needs and desires of an ever-evolving consumer landscape (January 31st).
Sente: Industrial Circular Economy, an investment program to support the next generation of industrial, sustainable technologies (January 31st).
ProVeg Incubator: supporting pioneering companies that are developing disruptive alternatives to animal-based products and services (January 31st).
Mentor Capital Network: helping mission-driven entrepreneurs build companies that will be socially, environmentally, and financially sustainable: business plans review, detailed feedback, mentorship (January 31st).
Ashoka: Making More Health Accelerator, Pilot and Scale-up phases; geographical coverage: Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Uganda (January 31st).
African Union Development Agency-NEPAD: Home Grown Solutions Accelerator for Pandemic Resilience, an Acceleration programme focusing on growth and mature stage African healthcare companies, conceptualized in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and in a realization of the potential of local private sector solutions to strengthen the continent’s pandemic resilience (January 31st).
Moral Fairground and StartSomeGood: Ethical Enterprise Start-Up Program, a 12-month program to help people design and launch great ethical enterprises (January 31st).
Space Hubs Network: supporting growth of space startups and scaleups by providing 1-to-1 mentorship to attract investment (January 31st).
Stay tuned on Linkedin and Twitter for more useful resources and updates on online programs, fellowships, awards, competitions, incubators, accelerators.
If you opt for funding advisory services (600+ impact investing opportunities), you are just one step away.
You will find below the most useful online platforms for your global and regional impact startup programs search. In most cases you can subscribe to newsletters/updates to make your search even easier.
Platforms for impact entrepreneurs
LeanVentures: global and regional programs for impactpreneurs (upcoming deadlines for impact programs, fellowships, competitions, challenges, awards, bootcamps, pitch events, incubators, accelerators, funding opportunities etc.)
Impact Shakers Community: weekly roundups with learning and funding deadlines for impact entrepreneurs. (mostly for Europe-&UK-based startups)
Ogunte: bi-weekly lists of current opportunities to ignite your social impact project. (mostly for UK-based ventures)
StartSomeGood: weekly digests – events and opportunities for social entrepreneurs.
Impact Hub Community: programs, events and opportunities for purpose-driven entrepreneurs and innovators.
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