Acumen and IKEA Social Entrepreneurship East Africa Accelerator 2021

Learn to scale your business with IKEA Social Entrepreneurship and Acumen.

Application Deadline: 8th June 2021

About the Award: We’ve packaged the steps to support social entrepreneurs to develop a scalable social enterprise model. Over 19 weeks, you and your team will learn the essentials of building a business model that can achieve both social impact and profitability.

You will have access to case studies from Acumen social enterprises and curriculum materials that package IKEA’s business knowledge. You will complete your own assignments to apply lessons directly to your business and then join biweekly interactive Learning Labs to give and receive feedback from your peers. You will also receive biweekly individualized coaching from IKEA coaches. 

You should expect to spend at least 8 hours per week working on your project. Most of this work can be done on your own schedule.

You will need 1-2 Lead Participants from the leadership team of your social enterprise to show up to the Learning Labs every other week and can have up to 10 people from your social enterprise access all of the curriculum materials. 

The program will culminate with a virtual Final Summit where you will attend final workshops and have a chance to network, pitch your venture, receive feedback from industry leaders, and be considered for up to $25k in seed funding.

Type: Entrepreneurship

Eligibility: Social Entrepreneurs in East Africa who:

• Run a social enterprise (nonprofit or for-profit) based in Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, or Ethiopia
• Have proven customer demand and demonstrate increasing annual revenue
• Have a team equivalent to 3 full-time staff
• Focus on promoting livelihoods, equality and inclusion

Eligible Countries: East African countries

Number of Awards: Not specified

Value of Award: Learn How To

• Refine and test hypotheses for developing a scalable business model
• Develop a robust social impact and financial strategy
• Gain best practices for forming partnerships to achieve scale
• Learn from practical case studies of other East African social enterprises that have successfully scaled
• Translate lessons from IKEA and apply them to your own enterprise
• Pitch your business to investors and receive feedback from industry leaders at a Final Summit
• Build networks with other social entrepreneurs and supporters in East Africa and beyond

Duration of Award: The program runs from June 8th to October 8th 2021.

How to Apply: Apply here

• It is important to go through all application requirements in the Award Webpage (see Link below) before applying.
• GOODLUCK

Visit Award Webpage for Details