Twelve European impact focused start-ups receive awards

The inaugural Impact Shakers Awards aiming to create a supportive environment for impact-driven start-ups and scale-ups, announced its winners.

The award is inspired by the doughnut economics model that maps human prosperity according to a social foundation and an ecological ceiling.

Winning teams were selected by an expert panel of jury and public voting in twelve categories reflecting on the concept of the doughnut economy: Energy, Water, Food, Health, Education, Income & Work, Peace & Justice, Political Voice, Social Equity, Gender Equality, Housing & Networks.

• Energy: Charm Impact (Borehamwood, UK) is an impact investing platform that crowdsources loans for clean energy start-ups in developing countries.
• Water: BitaGreen (Leuven, Belgium) offers nature-based solutions for urban water management and quality of life.
• Health: ResHub (Dublin, Ireland) ResHub is a resident engagement for Aged Care Providers who provide residential care to older adults, from independent living, assisted living, senior living to nursing home settings. •
• Gender equality: TaskHer (London, UK) champions women in skilled manual trades.

“We are absolutely thrilled that the work TaskHer is doing has been acknowledged by such a notable panel of judges and awarding body. This award for Gender Equality further validates the pressing need to shift the gender imbalance in this multi-billion pound industry.

Thank you very much to everyone who voted for TaskHer, it means so much to us.”- the TaskHer team recalls winning the award.

• Food: LAM'ON (Sofia, Bulgaria) Ltd produces and sells 100% biodegradable and suitable for compost laminating film called LAM'ON and packaging foil - PACK'ON.
• Political voice: The Newsroom (Lissabon, Portugal) The Newsroom fights misinformation and promotes plurality online.
• Housing: nestful (London, UK) helps those seeking affordable accommodation to co-live with seniors aged 50+ with rooms to spare.
• Education: Ecolytiq (Berlin, Germany) Ecolytiq enables banks, fintech companies and financial service providers to show their customers the personal impact of their purchasing behaviour on the environment in real-time.

David Lais, Co-founder and CPO at Ecolytiq, explains why this award is an important step on their journey:

”One of the most powerful tools at our disposal in fighting climate change is education. It is through education that we create awareness and inspire the action needed to solve one of humanity's most pressing issues. That is why we are so happy the Impact Shakers see it the same way we do!”

• Income & work: Lightning Social Ventures (London, UK) helps people in financial hardship to receive super fast support and recover from shocks.
• Peace & justice: Amurabi (Paris, France) bridges the gap between the law and its users: empowering all users to actually understand and exercise their rights.
• Networks: Maanch (Londen, Verenigd Koninkrijk) develops technology to measure, monitor and report on the impact of investments, organisations and philanthropy, through the lens of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
• Social equality: TIIQU (London, UK) is a trust mechanism continuously fed by blockchain-based certificates. They build trusted ecosystems for a modern, inclusive and fair society.

The awards are a part of the broader Impact Shakers ecosystem, the driving force behind the awards, which tackles complex societal challenges through inclusive entrepreneurship and aims to expand opportunities and capacity further to grow.

The organisation is currently developing their impact investment projects and will launch an accelerator later this year. Organisers will also introduce the Impact Shakers Awards in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region after the Summer.

Headline image: Photo by Ian Schneider on Unsplash