Public voting is open to select winners of the first Impact Shakers Awards
Share
Public voting is open until June 18th 2021, to select winners of the first Impact Shakers Awards that takes its inspiration from the doughnut economics model, which maps human prosperity according to a social foundation and ecological ceiling.
Applications were submitted from 24 countries, and an expert panel of jury selected 48 projects that made it to the final round.
Using simple online voting, people can now decide which innovative startup or scale-up will become category winners.
The public can pick winners in twelve categories: Energy, Water, Food, Health, Education, Income & Work, Peace & Justice, Political Voice, Social Equity, Gender Equality, Housing & Networks.
Finalist projects present various solutions to tackle pressing social, environmental challenges with an entrepreneurial mindset, focusing on data-driven technologies, capturing carbon from the atmosphere, mental health issues, plastic pollution, and more.
Winners will be announced on June 21st and receive access to unique networking opportunities, prizes to accelerate business growth and be invited to participate in an intensive bootcamp to secure alternative funding.
Partners offering prizes for best projects include Quest Impact Design Studio, EVPA, Mikme, SeedTribe, UpEffect, Business Spirit Platform and Adobe.
Yonca Braeckman, CEO of Impact Shakers and founder of the award, said:
âItâs the first time we used the doughnut economics model to work with impact startups, and we can say itâs an excellent and educational first edition.
Weâll continue to research how we can implement insight, collect more data, and measure impact.
At this point, we found significantly more impact startups in the categories energy, health, income & work and food, while there were far fewer in the categories peace & justice, political voice and water.â
Impact Shakers, the organiser behind The Impact Shakers Awards, aims to create a supportive ecosystem in which impact-driven startups can grow into solid and scalable businesses and bridge the gap between impact and profit.
âItâs really great to be able to prove with data what weâve been sensing for a while: founders of impact startups are more diverse.
Over 80% of the applicants had at least one âunder-represented founderâ on their team.
Another remarkable trend: many already found interested business angelsâeven with an impact-driven business model,â says Braeckman about the added value of organising the first edition of the Impact Shakers Awards.
