Supporting sustainable companies from seed to Series B
This year, the 100+ Accelerator is working with 36 startups from 16 countries, each taking their own innovative approach to develop sustainable strategies. Whether it’s circular packaging, water stewardship, climate action, smart agriculture, or upcycling, they’re all hoping to commercialize their sustainable practice solutions with 100+ Accelerator partners AB InBev, Unilever, Colgate Palmolive, and Coca Cola.
As the closing speaker of the four day event, our founder Rahul Raj engaged in a fireside chat with 100+ Accelerator’s program director Maisie Devine. Together, they discussed the importance of sustainable business and the ability of future generations to solve some of the world’s most pressing sustainability issues.
Rahul shared how his passion for positive impact began at a young age with the founding of Meal Exchange. He discussed the power of identifying and capitalizing on excess for the benefit of society, be that carbon capture technologies, the transformation of ocean plastics as a feedstock, or leveraging waste from manufacturing processes as raw materials in manufacturing, and connected these to the beginnings of Meal Exchange.
When the conversation turned to environmental and social projects that didn’t turn out as planned, and the learnings gathered through that process, he discussed creating a startup called Share Impact to transform the inequality of the capital markets by putting the power and responsibility back into the hands of investors. Here, he helped create a platform that enabled investors to register their shareholdings and identify their social values, mapping all the proxy proposals that connected the two, allowing investors to automate their proxy voting.
As the discussion continued, he mentioned the power of shifting from saying yes to saying yes with conditions, and the rewards that come with treating yourself as a client. He also relayed his belief that you are the average of the five people you spend most time with.
“It has had a profound impact on my life,” he said. “I realized that I need to surround myself with people that have inspiring social values, an appetite for risk, are kind and authentic. When you have a community that normalizes this, it can propel you to take the kind of social risk you want.”
Congratulations to each of the Challengers helping to solve some of the world’s most pressing global sustainability issues!
You can read more about the work 100+ Accelerator is doing here.
