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SE Outreach Accelerator

The SE Outreach Accelerator is a six-month scaling programme for social entrepreneurs running businesses that address social and environmental challenges facing low- and middle-income countries. The programme has been running since 2013, funded by Swedish aid agency Sida and the last programme was held in 2017 with participants from Nigeria, Malaysia, Pakistan, Botswana, Guatemala and Uganda working in sectors such as sanitation, health, ethical fashion, and renewable energy.

The programme grew each year and in 2017 we had almost 900 applicants from 92 countries. 41 innovative entrepreneurs from 22 countries have gone through the programme over the years, all with a passion to create change through their enterprise.

We have been able to work with entrepreneurs across various sectors and have seen impressive developments following the training and coaching by our impact team.

Social Business Bootcamp

As part of the work with SE Outreach Accelerator we have also had the opportunity to run Social Business Bootcamp, an intense 10-day course for people who have an idea they believe can solve a social or environmental challenge where the participants get help to turn their ideas into viable business plans.

We have had the opportunity of delivering Bootcamps in Kenya and Palestine and have had 43 entrepreneurs go through the training, with a majority still running their enterprises, and with improved sustainability. Several of the entrepreneurs have also gone on to receive great acknowledgements of their entrepreneurship, such as Wilhelm Oddo being named on the list of the 100 Most Positively Inspiring African Youths, and Towett Ng’etich being awarded the Queen’s Young Leaders Award by Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom.

Successful alumni

SE Outreach Accelerator alumni have moved on to achieve great success with Betty Ikalany, AEST, winning a Woman Entrepreneur of the Year award, and Joyce Kyalema, Josmak, winning an African Entrepreneurship Award. Richard Bbaale, Banapads, Samuel Malinga, Sanitation Africa, and Victoria Ferris, MoWoza, have all been awarded Sida’s Innovation Against Poverty grant following their participation in the Accelerator. Elsa Marie D’Silva, Safecity, won, amongst many other prizes, the Vital Voices Global Leadership Awards in 2017, and Derrick Hosea Opio, One Lamp, was listed amongst 100 Inspiring Social Enablers and won the World Summit Award in the category of Young Innovators in 2017.

 

The SE Outreach Accelerator was very beneficial to me as a participant and most importantly as a woman with no background in business administration. I gained a lot of knowledge and skills, which shaped me as a person and my business as well. It contributed to my winning the Woman of the Year award and other prestigious awards I have received to date.

– Betty Ikalany, AEST, 2015 SE Outreach Accelerator participant

 

 

You gave me the solid foundation to become an entrepreneur and to keep up my dream. I got to know many terms related to business and that helped me to talk with my clients and partners. The SE Outreach Accelerator is the best place to learn about social entrepreneurship.

– Sibjan Chaulagain, Creating SMILES Building the Nation, 2016 SE Outreach Accelerator participant

 

 

The SE Outreach Accelerator helped me in a number of ways to move as far as I am today. Since the Accelerator, our sales and impact has increased over 100%. The Accelerator taught me marketing skills which I have used to increase marketing and sales of our products, and it trained me on how to measure social impact in my community in terms of impact on small holder farmers or nutrition impact on vulnerable consumers.

– Eric Muthomi, Stawi, 2015 SE Outreach Accelerator participant

 

 

Wilhelm OddoMini Accelerator was a life changing experience which helped me to restructure my social enterprise model and develop a financially sustainable model. It increased my expertise in business modeling and presentation skills. Right after the training I was able to comfortably teach or train BMC to my students at Nlab and other organizations such as Help to help and Apps and girls. Now I run a series of trainings to university students in their respective institutions. Because of the exposure and credibility from SE training I was accepted to join the highly competitive YALI program!

– Wilhelm Oddo, Nlab, Social Business Bootcamp participant