Fifteen (15) social impact startups have made it through the first phase of the Impact Rise social innovation program despite this challenging year. They have been working hard with their coaches and mentors to scale their solutions and multiply their impact.
Join the Impact Rise Demo Day on Wednesday, November 4, 2020 starting 3:00pm Beirut time by signing up on this link.
Wrapping up phase 1
The startups have spent the last nine months in the program receiving tailored support to grow their marketing and sales activities, improve their management strategy, structure their operations and develop their social impact. This phase included coaching, mentoring, business clinics, technical assistance, one-on-one business development, marketing grants, access to international programs and more.
For many, the economic crisis and post-blast emergency has put their solutions in the center of the relief efforts, fast-tracking their growth. Their passion, commitment and devotion to the community and the environment has helped them emerge with more adapted solutions and more resilient teams. The Demo Day is a chance for the public to understand and recognize the value and impact of their work – giving hope for a better Lebanon.
“It’s time for impact to rebuild a better Lebanon! Get ready to interact with Impact Rise entrepreneurs and support their initiatives and achievements. Let’s contribute to the growth of a generation of Lebanese social entrepreneurs!” comments Krystel Khalil, Director of Programs at Berytech.
The Demo Day
Partners, experts, social impact investors and entrepreneurs will gather online to learn more about those impact ventures and support their initiatives. During the virtual event, the startups will get to pitch their solutions and answer direct questions. They will also be able to receive visitors in their virtual booths to network and to better showcase their work and scaling plans.
An expert committee will be sharing insights and feedback with the social entrepreneurs on their work for the first phase of the program. Meanwhile, seven finalists, announced at a later stage, will continue to the next phase of the program benefiting from another year of acceleration and scaling.
Meet the Startups
The 15 startups were initially chosen based on their business solutions and innovation potential, business model, scalability, team compatibility, and the social and environmental impact. Meet them all during the Demo Day:
3QA
3QA is a regional social enterprise that offers organizations support through its programs and services that focus on holistic organizational management and excellence in governance.
La Brocante
La Brocante – under arcenciel NGO, collects used furniture and appliances donated by households, restores, up-cycles and sells them at reasonable prices in Damour. By giving a new life to used furniture through antiquing, the new objects are then sold, therefore generating revenues for arcenciel’s social and environmental causes and sustainability.
Cezar’s Project
Cezar’s project is a rural development project oriented towards promoting sustainable and responsible tourism in the Shouf area through providing ecotourism services. It consists of guesthouses and farmhouses with an organic farm. The project provides guests with an authentic experience and the chance to explore the beauty and culture of the Shouf region through green packages.
Compost Baladi
Compost Baladi is a social enterprise that develops treatment systems for organic waste management through composting on different scales and for different entities. Compost Baladi composting system is perfectly tailored for residences, educational institutions or businesses to perform and achieve their urban organic waste management needs with minimal effort.
Drawwit
Drawwit aims to promote culture awareness throughout the illustrations of talented designers. It is an e-platform mainly designed to open doors for graphic designers to sell their unique digital illustrations inspired by any country’s culture.
FabricAID
FabricAID is a Lebanese social enterprise that enables underprivileged people to get decent clothing at affordable prices, while reducing fabric waste. FabricAID collects clothes either from partnering NGOs or through their smart clothing collection bins. Collected clothes appropriate for reuse are sorted into over 50 categories to be sold either through one of FabricAID’s own permanent shops located in very underprivileged and remote areas for prices ranging between $0.3 and $2.0 per item.
Find A Nurse
Find A Nurse helps families find, hire and manage trusted home care providers to take care of their infants, disabled or elderly at home. The online platform (findanurse.net) aims to help browse nearby caregivers’ profiles, filter and sort them based on proximity and fees, and check their photos, availabilities, qualifications, locations, and biographies.
Froz
E-Froz is a community-based, two-sided online platform that facilitates the process of making and tracking environmental impact. It enables local responsible businesses and establishments to list their products and services and increase their activity (sales). It also engages citizens to easily access affordable eco solutions. The online platform provides an interactive eco-directory comprised of ethical businesses, NGOs, recycling facilities and establishments that tackle waste management on various scales in addition to a ticketing section for eco-conscious events and initiatives.
Green Track
Green Track is a social enterprise for a sustainable waste management system, that aims to solve the waste crisis in Lebanon through the sorting at source and recycling projects lead by Green Women Team.
KwikPak Shelter
KwikPak Shelter is a ready-to-deploy emergency housing unit for refugees, vulnerable people forced to migrate, and communities caught in natural disaster zones who are no longer able to cope or meet their basic shelter needs for survival. The shelter concept relies on a foldable and logistics-friendly system, for quick mobilization and rapid emergency response; it also helps in lowering the costs of transportation and deployment. The shelter is Sphere standard-compliant and utilizes materials for all weather conditions.
Live Love Recycle
Live Love Recycle is a mobile application that connects people keen to sort their waste and to recycle, as there is no public waste management in Beirut, and no affordable recyclable collection services. With just one click a driver on an e-bike will reach the destination within 30 minutes. Trained personnel will come retrieve the bag of recyclable waste and swiftly deliver it back to the closest appropriate facility. The whole process is free and can be arranged with just a few taps on the user’s phone screen.
Skaniks
Skaniks is a localized interactive information system for travelers and city goers. Fixed pods will be placed throughout a city’s landmarks and walkways to present information about these landmarks and famous people that lived here (writers, philosophers, etc.) or events that took place there. These pods will be linked through a QR code system to an online portal where more information will be presented to the viewer via text or video or 3D holograms.
Teabah
Teabah is a new Lebanese tea product in the market planted and cultivated in Lebanon. The plan is to engage farmers and unemployed women in the rural area of Shouf in the production process of it.
The Volunteer Circle
The Volunteer Circle is a social enterprise and a bold step towards personalizing the volunteer experience in Lebanon. It is a skill-sharing platform that covers all areas of Lebanon, and eventually the MENA region, and matches individuals’ skills and time, to the cause that needs them the most as per their interests, location, and type of impact that they are seeking.
Zima
Zima is a software that enables Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to manage their bandwidth, users’ subscription, and billing without the need for servers. This allows rural and underprivileged communities to access low cost internet.
The Impact Rise social innovation program is part of Berytech’s mission to empower the Lebanese social entrepreneurship ecosystem with the support of the U.S.-Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI). The aim is to put ambitious startups, devoted experts and support partners on the road to growing sustainable and successful social ventures.
