A new ‘social accelerator’ scheme based at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) has launched to test whether ‘social unicorns’ work as well as tech unicorns by supporting high-potential social enterprises to maximise their impact.
Social Unicorns are often social enterprises that do not just maximise their narrow financial valuations but maximise broad societal resilience. The entrepreneurs who start them are not celebrated for reaching a high financial valuation but for succeeding in improving the lives of many people.
The 100x Impact Accelerator is a £50 million global initiative dedicated to shaping a new generation of ‘social unicorns’, and is seeking applications.
Based at the LSE, 100x aims to nurture high-potential social enterprises, enabling them to achieve positive impact on the scale of billions.
Impact areas for applications include:
o Climate and Environment,
o Health and social care.
o Education.
o Refugees, and
o Democracy.
100x’s goal is to identify the combinations of expertise, mentoring, and capital that enable impact-driven organisations to think bigger and achieve more.
The approach emulates the business accelerator model from the private sector and aims to show how impact-driven organisations can break the cycle of grant-seeking and weak governance that can limit organisations’ growth and impact potential.
For further information and details about how to apply to the programme, please visit the 100x Impact Accelerator pages on the LSE website.
Source: UK Fundraising