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Media Release| Feb 2019| Brisbane’s Impact Academy attracting further international talent to its social enterprise accelerator program.

February 15, 2019/Janelle van de Velde/

 

MEDIA RELEASE

15 February 2019

Brisbane based Impact Academy has been supporting social enterprises in Asia-Pacific since 2014 and this month marks the celebration and showcase of the ninth accelerator program on 21 February.  Simultaneously, the impacting team begin a new path and have a big year ahead as the tenth cohort of social enterprises, which has global representation, commence their growth journey with the Brisbane based company.

Left to Right back row : Peter Ball, Brad Burns, Frederick Brien, Bernie Craven, Tiam Whitfield, Timothy Mahoney, Simon Turner, Jonny Shirley.

L to R front row: Janelle van de Velde, Mikhara Ramsing, Toni Morrow, Riley Thiedecke

“We were overwhelmed by the applications for IA -10.”  said Impact Academy General Manager, Janelle van de Velde.  

“The quantity and quality of applications from across the globe was astounding.  The daunting task was to decide on the number of successful applicants that we could accept into the program and after internally agreeing that  a maximum of thirteen enterprises was ‘our number’, we ultimately on-boarded 18 because we simply could not turn any away on merit. They’re simply that impressive.”  Janelle said.

Janelle van de Velde joined the Impact Academy team mid-2018 and she is pivotal in implementing the largest change to the Impact Academy’s 20- week accelerator program since it was developed in 2014 when founder and director Peter Ball embarked on his mission to support start up and early stage social enterprise in Australia.  

Janelle came to Impact Academy after a stint in San Francisco preparing international software company Nitro for public listing. Her experience in corporate governance, driving operational systems and process improvements and stakeholder management offer a track record in establishing the appropriate frameworks to set businesses on the path of profitable business growth and global expansion.  

Since awarding the scholarship positions for IA -10 in December, Peter and Janelle have overhauled the program.  “We needed to grow and adapt with the needs of our participants to ensure the program remains relevant to their needs.  Our newest cohort was the validation we needed to fast track our changes. The selection process for all programs has always been an exciting and motivating time for Impact Academy’s team but this group was a definite standout.  The business maturity, focus on purpose, scalability and impact models has increased to another level and it gives us great comfort knowing that we’re helping affect real change.” said Janelle.

The successful enterprises for the 10th Accelerator program beginning this week are:

– Boo Boo Bikes:  https://booboobikes.com  Founders Tiam Whitfield and Simon Doble.. Simon is a serial entrepreneur and one of the key suppliers of renewable energy for aid agencies around the world.

–Tokens for Humanity : https://www.tokensforhumanity.org.au Founders: Frederick Brien & Bryce Thomas.  Multi award winning and recent QUT bluebox Accelerator Award recipients.

–FarmCube: Founders, Riley Thiedecke, Tim Mahoney, Alex Byrne.  Winners of the Griffith Hult Prize 2018. This team is heading to San Francisco next month to attend a bootcamp as part of their journey through to the next round.

–Ground Chai :  www.groundchai.com Founder Mikhara Ramsing: Winner of the Young Achiever Honour Award 2017 and Young Australian of the Year QLD Finalist 2019.

–Altina Drinks: https://altinadrinks.com/  Founders: Christina Delay & Alan Tse. Pro Bono Impact Awards Nominees and Winner of 2018 Canberra Rubik3 Innovation Award.

–From Little Things:  Founder, Nerida Bradley

– Evolte : Founder, Kimberley Winter

–Regeneration Capital:  Founder, Simon Turner www.linkedin.com/SimonTurner

–Waste Free Systems: Founder, Bernie Craven www.wastefreesystems.com.au

–Project WayMore: Founder, Subramanian Ramvijji  www.waymore.world

–MioTAG : Founder,  Maree Machin 

–Mammojo: Founders, Melita & Jonny Shirley.  www.mammojo.com

– Kind+: Founders, Simon Yeh, Sandy Lokas, Wayne Lu.  www.kindplus.com.au

–Lose Your Mind:  Founder, Leanne Butterworth www.loseyourmind.com.au

-AWOL:  Founder, Toni Morrow

–Seer Data: Founders Kristi Mansfield & Adam Peaston http://www.seerdata.com.au

–eggion – Founder, Marc Holt www.eggion.com

–NoshUp!: Founder, Brad Burns.  

“Remember these business names because they’ll be generating tremendous outcomes in the very near future” said Peter Ball, founder of Impact Academy and Managing Director of Greater Outcomes.

Investment in the Brisbane based accelerator program in early 2018 prioritised the building of a highly capable team and the creation of new businesses to service the needs of social enterprises and impact investors.

‘We continue to be at the forefront of social enterprise and our investment readiness process ensures that our social entrepreneurs are in the best possible position to attract and secure investment.  At the core of our program is the focus on setting measurable impact objectives and the management of financial performance. It’s this key combination that enables us to introduce private and public capital to drive social change and benefit the world we live in.”  said Peter.

Impact Academy boasts some impressive recent outcomes with four of the ten enterprises from the 2018 program securing $1.2M in seed investment before completing the accelerator program.  These four organisations have since been able to launch their ventures in market to start creating the impact they set out to at the beginning of their Impact Academy journey.

“Unleashing the powers of impact capital and social entrepreneurship means we can tackle social issues at scale.  There is still much work to be done but the Asia Pacific Impact Investment Summit held in Sydney late last year was another indicator that there is paradigm shift across the world and Australia is following suit. There are fundamental changes at play and the catalyst moving forward will be securing impact investing to fund the growth of these enterprises” said Peter Ball.

This will be the tenth program, aptly named IA-10, and those selected will join the alumni of 100+ game changing businesses who have already completed the program and whom Impact Academy have had the privilege of working with to design, develop, launch, fund and grow their ventures.  Enterprise examples include:

— — — — — — —

Impact Academy:

Our flagship project is the Impact Accelerator, a 20-week program focused on entrepreneurial learning and enterprise development. This program has been designed and continuously improved since 2014 to help social enterprises achieve sustainable and scalable impact.

Applications for the next accelerator program are now open and the program will commence in August 2019.  Go to www. impactacademy.net.au to find out more.

Impact Academy Showcase and Marketplace Event:

Date: 21 February 2019

Time: Marketplace opens at 5:30pm.

Where: Podium Level, Rydges. 9 Glenelg St, South Brisbane.

Ticket Sales: https://iashowcaseandmarketplace.eventbrite.com.au

Ticket Price: $95each or $950 table booking (10 seats)

 

Greater Outcomes:

Greater Outcomes is committed to building the ideal environment for social enterprise and impact investment to thrive.  Impact Academy focuses on the entrepreneurial learning and enterprise development; a new ‘lab’ business launched in 2018 will specifically support the digital design and technology development needs of social enterprise; and, a new venture capital business launching soon will work with impact investors and manage funds that are specifically dedicated to investing in early stage social enterprise.

Whether you’re a social entrepreneur looking to move your idea forward or an investor looking to support ‘the next big thing’ find out more at www.greateroutcomes.com.

 

End….

For more information please contact:

Kylie Ballinger         

Marketing Manager

Greater Outcomes

M: 0434 184 479   

E:  kylie@greateroutcomes.com

Peter Ball     

Founder and Managing Director

Impact Academy and Greater Outcomes

M:0421 612 915

E: peter@greateroutcomes.com

 

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