Nothing ventured,
Nothing gained.
If you thought we were deep in the age of the entrepreneur before, we’re about to encounter new depths, as recent events have rocked the world in its entirety — both digital and actual — leaving business sectors worldwide needing innovation to simply survive, let alone grow.
However, one “niche” sector of entrepreneurship is focused on businesses that positively impact the world around us, businesses that blend profit with purpose and one where the true spirit of entrepreneurship is very much alive.
These are the social entrepreneurs; a group of people that see a problem and actively look to solve it. Their motivations are as disparate as they are similar but their goals are united, with one sole objective:
Let’s make this world a better place.
Since the Chivas Venture first launched in 2014, the competition has awarded $5m in no-strings funding across 100 start-ups, who in turn have positively impacted over 2 million lives around the world.
Past Chivas Venture funded initiatives in numbers:
- 34 million litres of safe drinking water provided to communities
- 1,300 tonnes of waste recycled
- 2,500 farmers’ families helped out of poverty and funding
- Over 75,000 days of education provided for women and girls
This year however presents some very difficult challenges; not only for the entrepreneurs, but for the Venture competition itself. In previous years the $1million had been allocated to finalists via a pitching process due to take place later this year, but in light of the COVID19 pandemic, Pernod Ricard CEO Alexandre Ricard has come up with a novel solution:
“Now more than ever, our world needs the passion and dedication of those who want to bring about positive change. That’s why we have decided that each of our finalists should be provided with secure funding now, so they can continue their important work and continue to positively impact their communities in spite of these volatile conditions, which will be particularly challenging for fledgling businesses and the communities they serve.”
The Chivas Venture final 2020 would have seen 26 social enterprises go head-to-head this, but instead each of the finalists will receive $40,000 — an even split of the $1million prize fund — giving each company a financial boost towards making a change in this testing time around the globe.
26 social enterprises selected from 26 countries, across five continents
The finalists – who were due to pitch for a share of the fund at a Global Final later this year — will now each receive $40,000 in funding, which can be put towards creating positive change at a testing time for people across the globe.
Learn more about this year’s 26 Chivas Venture Finalists:
| COUNTRY | BUSINESS NAME | FINALIST NAME | BUSINESS OVERVIEW |
| Argentina | Mamotest | Guillermo Pepe | Mamotest’s central objective is to reduce the death rate of breast cancer by supporting women who do not have the economic resources to access quality breast cancer diagnosis. |
| Australia | Okra Solar | Damian Veling | Okra Solar designs and develops technology to give access to energy and electricity to those who live off-grid. |
| Belgium | Oak Tree Projects | Danae Van Dan Bossche | Oak Tree Projects provides affordable, co-housing accommodation for people with disabilities. |
| Brazil | Raizs | Tomas Abrahao | Raizs is an online platform that connects organic farmers directly with consumers to put an end to food wastage and poverty. |
| Bulgaria | Enova H2O | Huseyin Yemendzhiev | Enova H2O develops innovative instruments and services for better and faster water quality management. |
| Canada | Tandem Technical | Heather Ward | Tandem helps greenhouse gas emitters across a range of industries capture and convert pollution from a liability into an asset. |
| Chile | Wheel the World | Alvaro Silberstein | Wheel the World is a web platform where users can easily find and book holidays for people with disabilities. |
| China | P.E.T. | Jane Zhao | P.E.T. creates textiles made from 100% recycled plastic bottles. Through the creation of products like scarves and aprons, they are helping to reduce environmental pollution and plan to recycle 1 million plastic bottles by 2021. |
| Colombia | Recupera Tu Silla | Maria Sanchez | Recupera tu Silla is a furniture restoration business with both environmental and social impact. It extends the life of furniture, saving businesses and clients up to 75% in expenses and providing employment opportunities to people in vulnerable conditions. |
| England & Wales | WASE | Thomas Fudge | WASE develops decentralised wastewater treatment systems that embrace a circular economy to recover energy, nutrients and water in wastewater – providing sanitation and energy in under-served communities. |
| Greece | 100mentors | Georgios Nikoletakis | 100mentors connect students from underprivileged schools with mentors, creating a learning experience where students become more engaged, confident and conscious learners. |
| France | Pandobac | Anais Ryterband | Pandobac is an ecological and sustainable, zero-waste solution that offers a service of reusable crates to food wholesalers for fresh produce delivery. |
| Israel | HomeBiogas | Oshik Efrati | HomeBiogas produces a unique appliance that transforms organic waste into biogas and fertiliser; providing a solution that addresses multiple issues including cooking on unclean fuels, waste and sanitation. |
| Italy | Pedius | Lorenzo Di Ciaccio | Pedius is an app that allows the hard of hearing to ‘hear’ phone calls by converting speech to text in real time. |
| Japan | MyMizu | Robin Lewis | MyMizu is Japan’s first free water refill platform that guides people to public water fountains, eco-friendly cafes, coworking spaces, hotels and other businesses that offer free refills around the country. Through the app, users can access free drinking water instead of buying bottled water to reduce consumption of single-use plastic bottles. |
| Kenya | Green-Nettle Textile | Jonah Mwangi | Green-Nettle Textile creates fabric from stinging nettles. By converting the nettle stalks into a linen-like fabric, Green-Nettle is able to produce an eco-fabric out of natural – rather than synthetic – materials, and employ thousands of artisans across the globe. |
| Mexico | Graviti | Yusef Jacobs | Graviti offers bolt-on financing for basic services such as hot water and electricity – allowing the 30% of Mexico’s unbanked population access to pre-pay products, protecting users from unexpected extra costs and giving access to key infrastructure. |
| Netherlands | Urchinomics | Brian Tsuyoshi Takeda | Urchinomics is solving the sea urchin problem by turning them into a useful resource for the economy. Divers collect urchins from the sea and re-home them in proprietary land-based urchin ranching systems, from where they are sold onto high-end seafood distributors around the world. |
| Nigeria | Soupah Farm-en-Market | Ifeoluwa Olatayo | Soupah’s mission is to tackle inefficiencies in the food supply chain in Nigeria by connecting small scale rural farmers with urban retailers. The corporation engages in rooftop farms, fortified food processing and farm linkages for rural smallholders into urban markets. |
| Poland | MakeGrowLab | Josh Brito | MakeGrowLab is working towards a future of plastic-free packaging material, replacing non-recyclable petroleum-based products with compostable bio-materials that enrich the environment, rather than damaging it. The product is durable, non-toxic and can be grown locally anywhere in the world. |
| Scotland | Crover | Lorenzo Conti | Crover has created a small robotic device capable of moving within grain stores to monitor the condition of grains, with the aim of reducing waste and saving countless grain stocks each year. |
| Spain | EthicHub | Gabriela Chang Valdovinos | EthicHub is a global solution to generate affordable funds for smallholder farming. The blockchain-based platform allows investors from all over the world to help those with no access to fair finance; connecting developing countries and farmers with profitable projects in developed countries. |
| South Africa | Hustlenomics | Nhlanhla Ndlovu | Hustlenomics creates opportunities for women and youths by training them to replace informal backyard shacks with durable structures, using innovative building technology. Hustlenomics offers low income households an opportunity to build durable structures at no additional cost. |
| Thailand | YoungHappy | Thanakorn Phromyos | YoungHappy is a happy community for senior citizens, providing events and support groups that help seniors maintain an active lifestyle, while building their self-esteem and keeping them engaged with their peers. |
| USA | Strella Biotechnology | Katherine Sizov | Strella creates biosensing platforms that can predict the ripeness of produce within the supply chain, reducing food wastage prior to consumption by 40%. |
| Vietnam | Cricket One | Bicky Nguyen | Cricket One reduces agricultural waste and creates a valuable protein source by using the populous, safe and highly nutritious, cricket. |
