For the inaugural Impact Summit competition, we received over 150 applications from 20+ countries! We were blown away by the quality of applications and to hear from so many companies driving impactful projects on on all continents.

Today, we are thrilled to announce the semi-finalists for Impact Summit Competition 2021! Without any further ado, here are the 9 companies who are still in the running!

AKYAS: wastewater treatment plant in a bag to serve communities in water-scarce and emergency settings

AKYAS innovates sanitation solutions for the base of the pyramid population. One of their flagship products is a bag that serves as a wastewater treatment plant; and the best part – the bag will disappear, leaving behind nutrient-rich soil conditioner! They launched a pilot in an informal agricultural settlement, a public park, and are partnering with Oxfam to operate in the Za’atari Refugee Camp. They are planning to validate market segments in various settings, and study further the impacts of their treated wastes on soil. AKYAS welcomes you to join them in closing the loop for a circular sanitation economy!

Develop Diverse is an inclusive writing platform that enables companies to attract diverse and qualified talent.

Develop Diverse’s vision is to create equal opportunities by normalising diversity using tech. Develop Diverse is an inclusive writing platform with a strong scientific base and powered by AI, which makes corporate communication inclusive while helps the user unlearn their unconscious bias. The platform detects biased language for different diversity groups: gender, ethnicity, age, neurodiversity, physical disabilities, and LGBTQ+. One of their customers, Amazon, has experienced an increase of up to 4x more qualified and diverse applicants when making their job descriptions inclusive using Develop Diverse. They have more than 600 users in 35 different countries over 5 continents.

F4A: developing digital solutions to reduce food waste at a supermarket level and make healthy & high-quality food available for all

F4A takes social and environmental responsibility to the next level. They educate supermarket chains and end consumers that being environmentally conscious is beneficial for all. Their free app creates a 24/7 connection between physical supermarkets and shoppers. Each partner store can upload their close-to-expiry products on the app while app users get informed about their availability in-store within a few minutes. All products are marked-down, yet qualitative and linked to recipe videos which are featured on the app to inspire customers as they do their groceries. Customers save money and the planet at the same time, whilst eating better. It is simply a win-win situation for all.

Libereat: making food easier and safer for people with dietary requirements.

LiberEat was founded to make life safer and easier for those with dietary requirements such as food allergies, intolerances and medical condition or ethical related restrictions.

LiberEat’s unique allergen identification technology can significantly reduce food businesses’ risk of causing injury to customers through errors in allergen communication, and our consumer app shows users exactly what they and their families can have when grocery shopping, eating out or cooking at home.

Partners already include Pret, All Bar One, Miler & Carter, Browns, O’Neill’s and Harvester and the app is growing at a rate of several thousand users per month.

miFuture: nudging school leavers towards better skills future-focussed careers

A purpose driven company, miFuture is building towards a future where generation Z are empowered, employed and prosperous. Using a fusion of innovation and technology, and in collaboration with the right partners and networks, miFuture app is connecting school leavers not going to university with local employment and training opportunities.

Mujer Financiera: developing the first financial social network for women that integrates technology, education, community, and access to financial services.

Mujer Financiera is a startup aiming to collaborate with women’s financial inclusion through education and technology. It trained over 40,000 women on financial education and developed a data profiling model which identifies the right content for each woman, directly impacting her finances. To scale this model, Mujer Financiera developed Felicity: the first financial social network for women which combines technology, education, community, and access to financial services. On Felicity, women will be able to access custom financial content through machine learning and manage their personal finance through PFM (Personal Finance Management). With proper education, women will be able to connect with banks and fintechs to acquire financial services according to their needs.

Organifarms: developing robotic farming stations which automate complex processes in vertical farming systems, for the profitable cultivation of fruit and vegetables.

Organifarms develops innovative technology for the future of farming. Its farming stations automate complex processes such as the harvest, plant care, and pollination and can herby enable a profitable cultivation of fruit and vegetables in vertical farming environments. Central to the farming station is a 3D-computer-vision-software for detecting the position, ripeness, and quality of the fruit. While the first product is being developed for the cultivation of strawberries, the modular design makes it possible to easily adjust the system for other types of fruit and vegetables as well as greenhouses.

SALUBATA: recycled, low-cost plastic shoes that make a profit, whilst also benefiting people and the planet.

SALUBATA's mission is to produce the best quality shoes and lifestyle products and technologies that help people and the planet. There are over 381 million tonnes of plastic wastes produced annually and ~ 90.5% of these wastes have never been recycled. More plastics are reused rather than recycled or upcycled, resulting in over 5 trillion plastics still floating in our oceans.

Meet SALUBATA: a team of shoe designers and environmental scientists, crazy enough to think they could convert all these plastic wastes to foot wears - making money and reducing wastes simultaneously. The potential for impact is huge as the global footwear market is currently valued at $264 billion!

SolarisKit: the world’s first flat-packable solar thermal collector to provide affordable, clean energy to the global south.

With carbon emissions from developing economies exceeding those produced from the industrialised nations, and 50% of global energy consumed to meet heating demand, there is an urgent need for affordable and practical clean heating solutions to tackle the climate emergency and improve access to clean energy. SolarisKit has developed the world’s first flat-packable solar thermal collector to address this issue, an IKEA like device which can be assembled quickly and easily without requiring a single tool. Once assembled, their solar collector can convert sunlight into hot water for households, businesses and industry reducing energy costs and carbon emissions.

They will be pitching (virtually) in front of our panel of judges on Monday 29th and Tuesday 30th March 2021 and the finalists will be announced in April. The three finalists will pitch live at Impact Summit on May 20th and the winner will take away a prize worth £20k+!

Wherever you are in the world, join us online on May 19th & 20th