The Impact Accelerator™ program in the Philippines, operated by Impact Investment Exchange Asia (IIX), concludes this week with an Impact Showcase of four winning Social Enterprises (SEs).
Attended by regional and international executives, Impact Showcase provided four innovative SEs the opportunity to pitch their businesses to potential investors and ecosystem partners.
“IIX’s Impact Accelerator is one of several ways we are catalyzing the Impact Investing space in Asia and in this case the Philippines - by nurturing SEs with high potential and linking them up with our network of impact investors,” said Professor Durreen Shahnaz, Founder and Chairwoman of IIX.
Launched in 2014, IIX’s Impact Accelerator™ attracted 55 SE applicants from a diverse range of sectors and locations in the Philippines to apply for the selective program. Four winning finalists were chosen for their high potential to scale and magnify their social and/or environmental impact. The enterprises received US$50,000 in seed capital and acceleration services delivered over a period of six to eight months, which included tailored mentoring, training workshops and advisory services. Finalists were also connected with IIX’s expansive network of ecosystem partners and global Impact Investors.
“Entrepreneurship felt like a solitary path and I was seeking to learn from highly experienced mentors. I wanted to run my business with more authority and confidence. IIX’s Impact Accelerator provided that balance of financial and mentorship support,” said Ms. Anya Lim, Co-Founder of ANTHILL Fabric Gallery, which employs disadvantaged indigenous, rural and urban communities to transform traditional Filipino weaves into contemporary wear.
Other winning finalists include Kapwa Greens, which harvests and markets premium herbal tea while empowering underprivileged women through employment; Sidlakpinoy, which uses an innovative social franchising model to promote environmentally-friendly firebricks from silt for low-cost construction; and Hiraya Water Solutions, a pioneering water enterprise that innovated an advanced pressure management system called R-TAP to match local demand while reducing water waste.
“Impact Accelerator has been really instrumental in pushing us to act fast and grow fast. We learned how Hiraya could very well grow both business and impact simultaneously,” said Mr. Stephen Larcia, CEO of Hiraya Water Solutions.
With the successful completion of the first Impact Accelerator Philippines in local partnership with ASSIST Asia, IIX aims to scale this model in Philippines and replicate it across Asia, given that social enterprises, NGOs and SMEs increasingly seek acceleration services to build their capacity and investment readiness, and ultimately raise capital.
About the Finalists
ANTHILL Fabric Gallery: A sustainable livelihoods SE that employs indigenous, rural and urban communities to transform traditional Philippines weaves into contemporary wear and accessories.
Hiraya Water Solutions: A pioneering water enterprise that developed a Real-Time Adjusting Pump System (R-TAP), an advanced pressure management system to help water service providers adjust water pressure across the network to match local demand while reducing water waste.
Kapwa Greens: An agriculture SE that is one of the first local companies to sell herbal tea made from native plants in the Philippines. Kapwa Greens works with underprivileged women to produce the tea.
Sidlakpinoy: A housing and infrastructure SE that uses silt, a freely available raw material found in water bodies, to make bricks for construction using an innovative social franchising model. Silt is more environmentally friendly and less expensive than the concrete bricks that dominate the market.
About Impact Investment Exchange Asia (IIX)
IIX is a Singapore-based organization with a mission to provide Social Enterprises (SEs) in Asia greater access to investment capital, allowing them to more rapidly expand the impact of their activities. IIX offers three investment platforms – Impact Accelerator™, Impact Partners™ and Impact Exchange™. Impact Accelerator™ provides seed-stage SEs with mentorship and private capital through a structured and customized process. Impact Partners™ connects accredited impact investors to selected growth-stage SEs who are looking to raise investment capital. Impact Exchange™, the world’s first social stock exchange operated by the Stock Exchange of Mauritius in collaboration with IIX, is a regulated stock exchange dedicated to listing and trading securities issued by mature SEs and other socially-driven organizations. To date, IIX has facilitated $11 million of investment impacting more than 8.2 million people across Asia with $19.5 million in social value created. IIX is based in Singapore. For more information, visit asiaiix.com and follow us on Twitter @asiaiix and Facebook at facebook.com/asiaiix.
For media queries, please contact:
Ms. Lim Jia Ling
Email: jlim@asiaiix.com
Website: www.asiaiix.com
Telephone: (+65) 6221 7051
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