Santa Clara University’s Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship has launched a new partnership with the James & Rebecca Morgan Family Foundation and Charmaine and Dan Warmenhoven to re-engage and support past recipients of the Tech Museum’s Tech Awards with a mentored acceleration program that combines Miller Center’s proven curriculum emphasizing business fundamentals along with advanced content focused on investment facilitation, leadership, and governance support. We call this new program GSBI® Technology Entrepreneurship for Change (TECh) Accelerator.
Since 2003 GSBI has accelerated the impact of over 893 social entrepreneurs by delivering world-class accelerator programs that connect global social enterprise leaders with Silicon Valley business executives to develop more sustainable, scalable market-based solutions to the problems of those living in poverty around the world. In this time we have realized that our alumni social entrepreneurs continue to benefit from mentorship and acceleration even as they transform from start-ups to mature social enterprises. This program represents Miller Center’s core value of accompanying our entrepreneurs beyond the formal bounds of a GSBI program – committing to provide continued support in order to help them reach scale.
Miller Center has selected 14 social enterprises to participate in this new five-month program. The program starts with a refresher on business fundamentals, including impact model, business model, financial model, and growth strategy. It then advances to a personalized curriculum consisting of master-classes taught by industry experts on some of the most persistent barriers to scale: navigating the impact investing ecosystem, techniques to effectively structure and manage a board, strategies for becoming an effective manager and leader, and building a high performing team.
A powerful component of the program is active accompaniment through the investment process for which Miller Center GSBI® programs are renowned. Miller Center staff help to open doors for program participants, and provide mentorship on new topics including outreach tactics, due diligence, and deal structuring.
Since 2001, 296 social enterprises with “technology benefiting humanity” working in the fields of Environment, Education, Economic Development and Equality have been honored by The Tech Museum. Over 40 of the Tech Award Laureates are also GSBI Alumni. Miller Center is eager to re-engage these Laureates and Alumni and help them scale their impact.
A profile of the 14 social enterprises in this cohort can be found below.
The organizations will benefit from the proven GSBI accelerator curriculum, Silicon Valley mentors who accompany them and serve as trusted advisers, and the collective wisdom gained from accelerating over 800 social enterprises in 65 countries.
Thanks to the support of the James and Rebecca Morgan Family Foundation and Charmaine and Dan Warmenhoven, this cohort will be the first of three annual GSBI TECh Accelerator cohorts.
“I support the GSBI Technology Entrepreneurship for Change(TECh) led by Miller Center. My enthusiasm comes from decades of experience with Santa Clara University’s culture and successful support for social entrepreneurship when Father Locatelli was forming the Center, “ said Jim Morgan of the James and Rebecca Morgan Family Foundation. “It is exciting to see the Tech Laureates and others getting opportunities for investment facilitation and networking, plus management and financial coaching that can be so helpful.”
Each cohort will consist of up to 15 social enterprises utilizing technology to benefit people living in poverty and protecting the planet. These enterprises will have had a solid track record of success, but are now looking to break through to a new level of scale.
“Over the years, Dan and I have been incredibly impressed and inspired by the amazing work accomplished by The Tech Laureates. To help give them the opportunity to continue, and scale their endeavors to benefit humanity is a privilege. We look to this program to help them in their quest to bring impact and change to our world,” said Charmaine Warmenhoven.
TECh Cohort:
All Across Africa employs local artisans.
Organization Name: All Across Africa
Headquarters: United States of America
Enterprise Type: Hybrid
Description: All Across Africa brings artisan crafts to modern products and styles that utilize local renewable materials and generate global demand.
Countries Impacted: Burundi; Ghana; Kenya; Rwanda; Uganda
Organization Name: Amplio (formerly Literacy Bridge)
Headquarters: United States of America
Enterprise Type: Non-profit
Description: Amplio makes it possible to share knowledge through its Talking Book audio device and monitoring and evaluation services. Talking Book is designed to help development organizations, governments, and businesses amplify their work and share knowledge on-demand with people who are cut off from traditional sources of information.
Countries Impacted: Ghana
Organization Name: AREWA24, LLC
Headquarters: Nigeria
Enterprise Type: Hybrid
Description: AREWA24 is Nigeria’s first all-Hausa-language satellite television channel produced locally by and for northern Nigerians.
Organization Name: Awaaz.De
Headquarters: India
Enterprise Type: For-profit
Description: Awaaz.De develops cost-effective, easy-to-use communication and data collection tools that work on mobiles and landlines, breaking language and literacy barriers, to make information, connectivity, and communication accessible for everyone.
Organization Name: BeeLine Reader
Headquarters: United States of America
Enterprise Type: For-profit
Description: BeeLine Reader is technology that makes reading on screens easier and more accessible. It helps readers of all ages and skill levels, but it is especially helpful for ELL readers and readers with dyslexia, ADHD, and vision impairments. We build B2C tools and also license our technology to nonprofits and for-profits that want to make their platforms more accessible.
Organization Name: Circ MedTech Ltd
Headquarters: Israel
Enterprise Type: Hybrid
Description: Circ MedTech Ltd. develops, manufactures, and markets PrePexTM – the first and only medical device to facilitate a safe and virtually painless non-surgical male circumcision (MC) procedure available for all ages.
Countries Impacted: Zimbabwe, Zambia, Uganda, Tanzania, South Africa, Rwanda, Malawi, Lesotho, Kenya, Indonesia, Botswana
Organization Name: Grupo para Promover la Educación y el Desarrollo Sustentable, A.C.
Headquarters: Mexico
Enterprise Type: Other
Description: Grupo para Promover la Educación y el Desarrollo Sustenable, A.C. provides hands-on learning to build ecotechnologies that satisfy water, food, house, energy and waste management needs. We train people and supervise the self construction of the ecotechnologies.
Approximately 99.99% of bacteria can be netted and destroyed by the ceramic filtration technology owned Nazava.
Organization Name: Nazava Water Filters
Headquarters: Indonesia
Enterprise Type: For-Profit
Description: Nazava Water Filters is a for-profit social enterprise, targeting the 1.8 billion people that do not have safe drinking water from their tap. Our mission is to provide safe and affordable drinking water to everyone, everywhere. We enable low-income households to filter their well, tap or rainwater without the need to use unrenewable fuels to boil or use electricity. Nazava filtered water is 3x cheaper than boiling and 9x cheaper than buying bottled water. As Nazava replaces the need to boil water, we also reduce greenhouse gas emissions and save time for women seeking fuelwood.
Countries Impacted: Burkina Faso; Maldives; Mozambique; Philippines
Organization Name: Pollinate Energy
Headquarters: India
Enterprise Type: Hybrid
Description: Pollinate Energy distributes life-changing products, ranging from solar lights to clean cookstoves and medicated mosquito nets using a women-centric salesforce.
Organization Name: Potential Energy
Headquarters: Berkeley, California
Enterprise Type: Nonprofit
Description: Potential Energy manufactures and distributes the Berkeley Darfur Stove, an energy-efficient stove for rural, refugee families.
Organization Name: SAI Sustainable Agro
Headquarters: India
Enterprise Type: For-profit
Description: SAI Sustainable Agro works with smallholders in their abandoned agricultural land through an innovative, system-changing model. Farmers grow leguminous crops along with tree farming that increases their income, as well as provides social and ecological benefits.
Organization Name: Solar Ear
Headquarters: Canada
Enterprise Type: Hybrid
Description: Solar Ear’s mission is to serve the hearing impaired in developing countries using a unique model of manufacturing affordable, solar-powered hearing aids with local deaf workers who are trained to perform at a world-class level.
Countries Impacted: Botswana; Brazil; Mexico
Organization Name: We Care Solar
Headquarters: United States of America
Enterprise Type: Non-Profit
Description: We Care Solar saves lives in childbirth by advancing the use of solar electricity in under-resourced health centers. Their award-winning Solar Suitcase is a compact solar electric kit for medical lighting and communication that enables timely and appropriate emergency care in maternal health facilities and settings without reliable electricity.
Countries Impacted: Afghanistan; India; Liberia; Mexico; Nepal; Nicaragua; Nigeria; Rwanda
Organization Name: Whirlwind Wheelchair International
Headquarters: United States of America
Enterprise Type: Hybrid
Description: Whirlwind endeavors to make it possible for every person in the developing world who needs a wheelchair to obtain one for a chance of reaching maximum personal independence and integration into society.
Countries Impacted: China; Philippines; Morocco; Republic of Georgia; Vietnam; Canada; South Africa; Mexico
