Launch of a new London Accelerator for social enterprises

Written by Andre Damian, The Collective Foundation Director

Every idea starts with a problem. Major cities are seeing issues that put a strain on our neighbourhoods like we’ve never seen before: new migrants living in poverty; little access to mental health support, families trapped in a cycle of economic downturn and so many more. The Collective Foundation rose from the need to address city’s biggest challenges and provide a platform for young people to bring new ideas and solutions.

The Collective Foundation is the philanthropic arm of The Collective, a property company that creates co-living spaces to build more connected and inspired world that’s more alive, more together, more collaborative and acts as a catalyst to drive social change.

But how exactly do you “drive social change”? It’s a tricky question to answer. Often people think you need to be an academic expert or have major financial backing, however, all it takes is young, forward-thinkers with big ideas to join forces and think outside the box. And that’s exactly what The Collective Foundation facilitates.

Their vision is to build a global community of entrepreneurs who are making a positive impact in their communities. In the last two years, the Foundation ran a Global Accelerator programme that supported tech for good entrepreneurs from all over the world. Their 20 Alumni are now impacting thousands of people across 5 continents.

Examples include The Biz Nation, that educates disadvantaged young people on business fundamentals and life skills through an online platform, or Ava, a software that helps deaf and hard-of-hearing people to listen to the conversations around them by recognising speech and translating this into text messages on your phone.

Collective London Accelerator

This year, The Collective Foundation is launching their first Accelerator programme to help London-based social entrepreneurs gain access to world-class network of partners and investors. The programme offers the mindset, tools and connections to help scale early-stage ventures.

The programme focuses on learning by doing approach, tailored to the specific growth needs to each selected start-up.

Mentoring: 1-on-1 mentorship from entrepreneurs and leaders in your industry.
Training programme: a rich curriculum of workshops and coaching sessions to improve your business through a learning by doing approach.
Co-living space: 2-week residential experience at The Collective’s new building in Canary Wharf.
Community: access to the hundreds of residents living in the building, who could become your next partner or customer.
Strategic benefits: access to the Foundation’s strategic partners, who offer anything from legal support to digital consulting.
Investment opportunities: access to the Foundation’s investment partners, who you will be connected to throughout the programme and on Demo Day.

Previous supporting partners include London Mindfulness Project, UCL Innovation & Enterprise, UK Angel Investment Network, Thomson Reuters, Google Digital Garage and Amplify.

Participation is entirely free of charge. The Collective Foundation funds the programme and does not take any equity or fee for your participation.

They are looking for start-ups that focus on social missions that align with the theme “Building Connected Communities” and have a positive impact on one or more of the following Focus Areas: Economic Opportunity, Social Integration, Health and Wellbeing and Environmental Sustainability.

The part-time programme runs from 1st September until 22nd November, 2019, for a duration of 12 weeks.

Applications are accepted on a rolling basis, selecting the first batch of applicants by17th April and the second batch by 17th May, 2019.

To learn more and to apply, please visit their website at www.thecollective.com/foundation/accelerator.

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