- The Norrsken Impact Accelerator is designed to find the world’s most promising impact startups, and help them scale. Today, it has announced the 20 companies that will participate in its 2022 programme.
- 15 countries and solutions ranging from mental health, poverty alleviation, sustainable agriculture, financial inclusion and green energy are included in the 2022 cohort.
- Since participating in the 2021 cohort, 20 early-stage impact startups have raised more than $24m in pre-seed- and seed funding.
Yesterday, Norrsken has announced the twenty companies that will participate in its 2022 Norrsken Impact Accelerator, an accelerator programme designed to find the world’s most promising early-stage impact startups and help them scale.
All of the participating companies were selected via an open application process, and have been evaluated against the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals, and ranked based on the magnitude and depth of their potential impact. Unintended and potentially harmful side-effects of success have also been taken into consideration. Only companies that can successfully demonstrate thatimpact is an integral part of their business model have been admitted for entry into the programme.
The 2022 batch was selected by an expert team that includes Norrsken Foundation CEO Erik Engellau Nilsson, Capital T founding partner Janneke Niessen, Lazada co-founder Christopher Brinkeborn Beselin, Kry co-founder Fredrik Jung-Abbou, Brilliant Minds co-founder Ash Pournouri and Walerud Ventures founder Jane Walerud. The Norrsken Impact Accelerator is also supported by the Norrsken VC and Africa investment teams.
Beyond acceptance to the programme itself, including an 8-week growth sprint at Norrsken House in Stockholm and mentorship from a roster of over 110 entrepreneurs, investors and unicorn founders, with all startups set to receive $125,000 upfront pre-seed or seed investment from the Norrsken Foundation.
“This is a big day for Norrsken. Our Accelerator brings together over one hundred extraordinary individuals who channel theirknowledge, experience and network to pave the way for early-stage,
up-and-coming impact tech startups. We only want to work with companies that are solving real, urgent and important problems -problems that matter. We believe that all of the companies in our 2022 cohort are doing exactly this, and we’re so excited to be part of their growth journeys from here!”, said Funda Sezgi, Norrsken Impact Accelerator managing director and co-founder.
The 2022 cohort
Appload
https://www.appload.co.mz
Mozambique Transportation
Appload’s digital linking platform allows data collection and real-time sharing, secure payment, and a system of trip monitoring andcustomer reviews. This allows supply and demand to meet efficiently, thus optimizing trucks and shipping goods in time, while building trust within the market. In particular, this allows Appload to help fill empty trucks on return trips, at a discounted rate for customers thatespecially need it.
Basys
https://www.basys.ai/
USA
Healthcare
Basys is a digital health app for managing chronic conditions like diabetes through a unique combination of AI, a reward-associated nudge system, diabetic nurses, and precision nutrition.
Clafiya
https://clafiya.com
Nigeria
Healthcare
Clafiya is a digital primary healthcare service that connects individuals and businesses to health practitioners for convenient, quality,and affordable, on-demand primary care from their mobile phones.
Emata
https://www.emata.ug
Uganda Agriculture/Fintech
Emata provides affordable digital loans to farmers in Africa by combining a fully digital process, machine learning, and partnershipswith cooperatives to reach farmers at scale. Emata’s model allows it to reach more farmers (even those without smartphones) at lower costs and with above-average repayments.
Umoja Labs
https://umoja.money/
Tanzania Agriculture/Fintech
Umoja provides last mile payment tools for aid organizations & fintechs to increase digital financial inclusion foremerging market consumers.
Fixa
https://fixarwanda.com/
Rwanda
Fintech
Fixa connects verified artisans in a wide array of services with formal job opportunities. The platform is designed to help corporations of all sizes hire directly from a database of pre-vetted workers..
Motito
https://motito.co/
Ghana
Fintech
Motito offers a buy now, pay later service that allows small businesses to offer interest-free credit at point-of-sale. i.e our consumers can get a payment plan from their local stores that are part of our merchant network.
NitroCapt
www.nitrocapt.com
SwedenAgriculture
NitroCapt has invented a novel chemical process for the production of climate-neutral nitrogen fertilizers in order to contribute to both agricultural sustainability and productivity. The process is competitive with today’s fossil-based processes.
Also read: Mozambique represented for the first time at the Africa Early Stage Investor Summit
ANA
http://www.pazmental.mx
Mexico Healthcare
The ANA platform trains, certifies, finds jobs, and supports caregivers. This helps reduce inefficiencies and unnecessary hospital visits, saving up to 50% of the patient cost.
Scase
https://www.scase.io/
Slovakia
Healthcare
Scase reduces the time healthcare personnel needs to diagnose patients and allows them to remotely monitor patients. This saves time, gives access to more accurate data and uncovers new diagnoses.
SiteAI
https://siteai.io
USA
Healthcare
Intelligent site selection and enrollment optimization. SiteAI takes site data, capabilities, patient data, past trial performance and uses it to evaluate medical sites with 100+ variables.
Spoor
https://spoor.ai/
Norway
Cleantech
Spoor is using computer vision and AI to monitor bird activity in onshore and offshore wind farms, using off-the-shelf cameras. The system will be capable of near real-time classification of bird species and collision-risk estimations. It eases data gathering,operationalizing data and compliance to optimize wind farm production capacity.
uMore
http://umore.app/
United Kingdom
Healthcare
uMore is a digital health screening and recommendation platform that combines machine learning and digital biomarkers to offeraccessible and personalised mental health care. The product predicts users’ mental health outcomes and delivers targeted activities to educate and improve their behaviors.
Green-On
https://green-on.se
Sweden
Foodtech
Green-On uses a patented power-to-food technology whereby carbon dioxide, water and electricity is used to directly synthesize fat molecules. The company use no arable land to produce the fat, no fertilizers and is carbon neutral.
Also read: African Startup League will fund over 10k startups a year
HealthDart
https://www.healthdart.co.za/
South Africa
Healthcare
HealthDart is a network of doctors, nurses and pharmacies that patients based in underserved middle income areas can access digitally via our platform. The platform enables them to get health advice remotely from anywhere, book virtual- and physical consultations and order medication from partner pharmacies.
LEIA
https://www.meetleia.com
Sweden
Healthcare
LEIA is the world’s first postpartum health tracker. Daily check-ins will enable personalized content from a broad range of experts giving new mothers data driven insights about their physical and mental health and the tools to change it for the better.
Paradiset
www.paradiset.com
Sweden
Foodtech
Paradiset uses already accessible data and AI to make it easier for all people to eat healthier and break bad diet habits. The company partners with existing retailers to help them improve their offering for customers, in order to scale the solution fast and help as many people as possible.
Power Financial Wellness
https://yourpower.io
Kenya
Fintech
Power delivers access to earnings at any time and 80% cheaper than the market, streamlined savings and investment accountsevery time workers get paid, longer term loans customized to individuals and digital insurance, financed for workers and collected over 9 months.
SunFi
https://www.sunfi.co
Nigeria
Cleantech
SunFi helps 3rd party solar installers offer financing and payment plans to consumers. The company also provides installers with productivity tools and tech partnerships to accelerate the transition to solar.
Vitala Health
https://www.vitala.health/
Sweden
Healthcare
Vitala is a chronic care management platform for medical exercise and digital rehabilitation. It allows for instantaneous prescription forphysical activity and digital rehabilitation to patients with chronic diseases. Programs are evidence-based and proven to slow down disease progression, decreasing the risk of medical complications, while boosting physical and mental wellbeing.
Update from the 2021 Cohort, over $24m raised:
Since being accepted into the 2021 programme, the 20 participating companies, sourced from over 2,300 applications worldwide, have raised more than $24m in seed or pre-seed funding from investors like Brilliant Minds co-founder Ash Pournori, Kry co-founder Fredrik Jung-Abbou, Pär Norberg of Nordic Capital, Capital T, Globivest and Norrsken Foundation.
The Norrsken Impact Accelerator stands out among startup accelerators in that it places impact potential at the core of its evaluation process. Its goal is to find the world’s most promising impact startups – companies that can not only both grow into successful, scalable businesses, but also help solve some of the greatest problems facing the world today.
