- 100x Impact Accelerator forms a new ecosystem of finance, talent, and access 
that enables scale-up social enterprises and 
non-profits to significantly grow their impact
- Impact areas for applications include climate and environment, health and 
social care, education, refugees, and democracy

100x Impact Accelerator[https://www.100ximpact.org/], a new £50m global 
initiative dedicated to shaping a new generation of "social unicorns", today 
launches its first call for applications. Based at the London School of 
Economics and Political Science (LSE)[https://www.lse.ac.uk/], 100x aims to 
nurture high-potential social enterprises, enabling them to achieve positive 
impact on the scale of billions. 

100x's goal is to identify the combinations of expertise, mentoring, and 
capital that enable impact-driven organisations to think bigger and achieve 
more. It emulates the successful business accelerator model from the private 
sector and aims to show how impact-driven organisations can break the cycle of 
grant-seeking and weak governance. These factors often act together to limit 
organisations' growth and impact potential.

Each social enterprise selected for 100x Impact Accelerator will receive a 
£150,000 grant and access to LSE's world class expertise, plus a 12-week 
programme of bespoke support from experts and social unicorn founders – 
intended to help leaders determine how best to maximise their impact. The 
programme includes two weeks of in-person sessions at LSE in London, virtual 
meetings with experts, and an annual Summit Day, where all participants will 
present to philanthropists, investors, governments, and media. All expenses for 
ventures taking part in 100x will be covered.

100x Impact Accelerator will support two cohorts of ten social enterprises 
every year, with 70% of these coming from emerging markets. The accelerator is 
looking for scale-up impact organisations that have a proven model, so it can 
help deliver their next big leap of growth.

Places will be offered to organisations across eight sectors which closely 
reflect LSE's research priorities. These are: climate and environment; health 
and social care; refugees and cohesion; equitable economies; happiness and 
wellbeing; democracy; education; and new frontiers.

Professor Stephan Chambers, Director of the Marshall Institute at LSE, said: "A 
clear understanding of the best approaches for social enterprises and charities 
to scale impact just doesn't exist the way it does for private businesses to 
scale profits. That severely curtails the impact these organisations could 
have, and the world is worse off for it."

He added: "100x Impact Accelerator aims to plug this gap. By partnering with 
successful social unicorn founders and providing meaningful support to a large 
number of high potential impact-driven organisations, we aim to highlight 'what 
works' for social enterprises, so more of them experience real success."

Leslie Labruto, Director of 100x Impact Accelerator, said: "It's time to level 
the playing field for social enterprises. Where for-profit businesses have 
clear endgames – for example going public or being acquired – the same cannot 
be said for social enterprises. Instead, they get stuck in endless fundraising 
loops, stunting their impact potential."

"Ironically, the social sector is ripe with innovative approaches for scaling 
impact, like open-source models, digital tools, and government partnerships. 
We're here to help ventures understand the best model for solving the problem 
they're trying to tackle – and then work with them to develop it."
She added: "We're looking for bold, innovative impact scale-ups to join us as 
we challenge the social enterprise status quo."

100x media contacts
Victoria Medina or Robin Grainger
Fourteen Forty Communications
Victoria.medina@fourteenforty.uk
Robin.grainger@fourteenforty.uk 

Source: 100x Impact Accelerator