The 12-week program is designed like other accelerators, providing technical and business advice and mentoring along with about $20,000 in exchange for a small equity stake. But the firm focuses on "for entrepreneurs building a better world... looking to make social or environmental change," says Wes Selke, founding director of Hub Ventures.
The firm held its second demo day in San Francisco Wednesday for the seven companies in its latest batch to pitch to investors. The firm, which had more than 200 applications, looks for a strong team, a large scalable business potential and companies that can make a social impact. "The companies we look at are ones where we can get excited about their business models with a big market opportunity," says Rick Moss, founding director of Hub Ventures.
There's a gap for ideas between traditional business on the one hand, and philanthropy on the other hand, which is the kinds of companies Hub Ventures takes on. In addition, many investors focus on later-stage companies, and there is less available for smaller new companies. So Hub Ventures provides a start for these early stage companies. The firm is backed by a number of social impact venture firms.
"The theory we ascribe to is that for global challenges, philanthropies, nonprofits and foreign aid can solve some problems or the government can step in," Moss says. "But there's this big gap where business can step in and solve problems and ensure it's in a sustainable way."
Here are the companies that presented Wednesday:
Acopio - Provides a data collection tool for coffee farmers and farming collectives in developing countries such as Mexico. The service runs in a mobile browser and can work when phones are offline. Acopio is designed to increase profits through increased efficiency by letting farmers analyze data about their farms in real-time. Acopio has been testing the service with a farming cooperative in Chiapas, Mexico. The startup is also working with financiers so that they can have better information about the farmers they are loaning to. The farm cooperatives pay on a subscription basis. Acopio also seeks to work with specialty coffee brands that want better sourcing information about their coffee.
Africa's Talking - Provides a system for people and companies to connect via SMS messages. Because many in Africa do not have computers or smart phones, they don't get access to email, online banking or other services. Africa's Talking helps people and companies connect via SMS on any feature phone. For example, farmers could check on market prices through SMS using Africa's Talking. The company is starting in Kenya but aims to connect the approximately 190 telecommunications carriers across the 55 countries in Africa. The company charges set up fees, monthly maintenance fees and usage-based fees for SMS messages, voice calls and USSD. Africa's Talking released its API two weeks ago. The co-founders are former roommates from their days at MIT.
Checkinon.me - A personal safety mobile app. The app checks with the user at a specified time to ensure she is safe. If the user picks the right code-word in the app, a message is sent to the user's contact that the person is safe. If the wrong code word is sent, the contact is notified that something is wrong. The service can be used by women going on dates or for a realtor who meets with strangers while giving realty tours. The startup is also talking to online dating sites in areas such as India. There are a number of competitors out there, but others let you cancel the notification by pushing a button, which is not helpful if someone takes your phone, says founder Deb Levitt.
Diime - Creates a medical device for auto-transfusion among pregnant women in Sub-Saharan Africa. The technology was built with clinicians in Ghana when the team travelled there to work with medical officials. Because there is a shortage of donor blood, clinics in parts of Africa use auto-transfusion of blood, which can be dangerous and inefficient. Diime's plastic device is safer and more efficient, the company says. Besides pregnancy, the device can be used in abdominal or other surgical procedures. The company is also working on a number of other infant and baby delivery medical devices. The cofounders Theresa Fisher and Gillian Henker are former engineering classmates at the University of Michigan.
Givkwik: A mobile service to promote small online donations to non-profits. Non-profits can use the button to get small donations (as small as 25 cents) each time someone clicks on the "Giv" button. When people donate they get points that they can use to get rewards. The company is using "donor advised funds" so that people can click to make a transaction then decide later what exactly to give. The company also uses gamifiication such as badges, leaderboards and rewards. Givkwik also plans to white-label the service for others and plans to open up the service for others to build on its platform. Competitors include CrowdRise, Causes and Flattr. The company gets 6% of donations to its donor-advised fund and plans to add subscription fees for nonprofits.
Project Repat - This startup turns unused clothing and apparel into new products via "upcycling." As much as 20% of apparel from big retailers like H&M goes unsold, because it is defective or for other reasons. Project Repat has a team of designers and workers in the U.S. who turns these goods into "new" products. These include tote bags made from T-shirts and wallets made from jeans. This keeps clothing out of landfills. Meanwhile for large clothing companies, this provides revenue for products that before would have been thrown away. Project Repat has been pilot-testing the service with clients such as Whole Foods, MIT and Northeastern University.
StreetOwl - Ten years ago Ofer Raz founded a venture-backed trucking technology company Greenroad. Now he's launching Refuel-me, an app that's designed to incentivize teenagers to drive safer. The app measures how teenagers drive, including factors such as speeding, accelerating, breaking or cornering. Then the app gives them rewards from their parents for safe driving. Parents meanwhile can view a web dashboard to see how their teens are driving. The company plans to make money by providing lead generation to insurance companies. The company, which is raising $450,000, plans to launch its service in two months.
