On 20 November, 100x Impact Accelerator at LSE hosted the annual 100x Summit Day in the Great Hall of LSE’s iconic Marshall Building.
The event celebrated the Accelerator’s 2024 cohort of social ventures with pitches from participant enterprises to an audience of almost 200 members of the social impact community, including investors, partners, experts, policymakers and the media.
The 11 outstanding organisations which took part in this year’s 100x Summit Day belong to 100x’s portfolio of 19 social ventures operating across the globe, impacting a combined 35 million people.
The pitches kicked off with Chancen International's Batya Blankers, who presented the innovative Income Share Agreement model that finances education for low-income household students.
RightWalk Foundation's Samina Bano then shared how her organisation aims to bridge the inequality gap in India by activating transformative social policies into real-world outcomes.
She was followed by Chilean venture Recylink, who are leveraging tech to optimise industrial waste management.
LSE alum Kruti Bharucha from Peepul then delivered an impassioned pitch about transforming student learning by empowering teachers and creating high-engagement classrooms. “190 million students go to public schools in India, but despite six years of learning, the majority can’t read or solve a basic maths problem. This is a learning crisis for the entire country,” she said.
Peepul’s pitch was followed by seven other inspirational pitches from Tarjimly, ImpulsoGov, Wysa, OneDay Health, Reap Benefit, The School of Politics Policy and Governance (SPPG), and Intelehealth. The pitches presented a diversity of solutions, ranging from offering lifesaving translation services for refugees and asylum seekers to last-mile healthcare access that boosts women’s agency.
Kieron Boyle, CEO and Director of 100x Impact Accelerator at the Marshall Institute, said: “In a world grappling with complex challenges, we are driven by a simple yet profound question: ‘what does it take to scale the impact of social innovations so they can reach hundreds of millions of people?’ We think part of the answer lies in combining world-class insights from a platform like LSE with bold, practical action from a world-leading impact accelerator like 100x.”
With further entrepreneurial insight, Marshall Institute Director Professor Stephan Chambers chaired a conversation with renowned social entrepreneur Jeroo Billimoria, who emphasised the importance of government collaboration when scaling impact. “Social ventures have to learn how to negotiate and work with governments. Do not come up with a solution and tell them to implement it. Instead, co-create with the government from step one, make them your best friend and partner in change,” Jeroo said.
The duo also discussed the necessity for social ventures to focus on scaling impact rather than growing their organisations. “The size of the organisation is not important; what matters most is how many lives you’ve impacted,” Jeroo added.
Summit Day is a culmination of 100x’s 12-week bespoke programme, where, in addition to a £150,000 grant, founders undergo an insightful journey of learning in areas such as end-game theory, scaling strategy, impact measurement and leadership.
Dr Oby Ezekwesili, Founder of the social enterprise SPPG, said: “The 100x programme has been hugely valuable for us, especially its emphasis on evidence-based data. Working with J-PAL to polish this aspect of our work and working with I.G Advisors to add clarity to our vision and approach have all been great additions to our organisation.”
Nicolas Laing, Co-founder of OneDay Health, said, “We feel like we can do much more now because of the kind of organisations that we were paired with. Our organisation is a little smaller compared to the others in our cohort, but they have helped us pick up. Looking at their strategies, fundraising plans, and big visions has inspired us to reimagine what we can achieve.”
LSE President and Vice Chancellor Larry Kramer said: “LSE has been at the forefront of understanding the causes of the most important issues facing society, from inequitable health access to structural poverty to climate change and sustainability. The next question then becomes: ‘how can we be part of the solution?’ It was this question that inspired the launch of 100x Impact Accelerator at LSE. And what we’ve seen today is just a glimpse of what is possible.”
The event ended with a vibrant networking session aimed at initiating future collaborations and partnerships among ventures and leaders and experts in the impact community.