Meet the Eight Startups selected by the MAN Impact Accelerator for its second cohort!

‍The MAN Impact Accelerator is proud to introduce our eight innovative social business startups selected from an international pool of 266 applications from Europe, India and South Africa

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In August we began scouting for the second round of the MAN Impact accelerator, searching for impact-driven and purpose-led startups in mobility and logistics.

With hundreds of hopeful applications, a vigorous selection process, and just eight spots up for grabs, choosing between so many amazing startups was certainly no easy task.  Besides an impressive 330% increase in applications from our previous year - what jumped out at us in the applications for round 2 was the remarkable talent the programme was drawing in.  The quality of the applications we were filtering through is proof positive that the spark of social business is alive and that technology is transforming the thriving mobility and logistics ecosystem!

Today, at last, we are thrilled to announce our newest cohort. From mobile clinics in South Africa, to logistics for refugee camps, it’s clear that this cohort is chock-full of passionate entrepreneurs brimming with innovative ideas and set to make a powerful impact on a variety of sectors.

So, what do these startups all have in common? They have built innovative solutions to so many of the problems we encounter in the news every day. They have also been selected for their potential to create tangible and measurable impact, the strength of their team, their execution and traction, growth potential and those who can use MAN Truck & Bus and Yunus Social Business’  support. And, as you will see, they far from disappoint..

Meet the new cohort

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Boxwise

Boxwise is a web application which makes it easy for organizations to distribute donated goods such as food, clothes or hygiene items to people in need by making sure they know which donated goods they have in stock, where to find them, and which to restock.

Breeze Technologies

Breeze Technologies provides an environmental intelligence platform that offers hyper-local, comprehensive and accurate air quality data and climate data through smart, affordable indoor and outdoor sensors, as well as insights and actionable recommendations for corporates and cities.

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Frontier Markets

‍Frontier Markets is a last-mile distribution company with a mission to create ‘Saral Jeevan’ (or an ‘Easy Life’) for rural customers by providing them with access to health and hygiene, clean water and energy alternatives through its network of digitized rural entrepreneurs, with women at the centre of the value chain.

K-Ryole

K Ryole design smart electrical bike trailers that can carry up to 250 kilos behind any bike without any effort from the biker: postal services, last miles logistics, food delivery and construction company, for each market a different K-Ryole exists! 

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Shopit

Shopit improves the distribution of quality and affordable goods and services in townships and rural areas in South Africa. The mobile app enables mom and pop stores to compare prices at wholesalers in their area, order all their stock from their phone and have it delivered to their doorstep; it saves them time and money and enables them to offer better services and more affordable essential products to their customers in poor communities.

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Loop

Loop is a shared transport service for farmers to pick up their perishable harvests, deliver it to market, and pay them for their sales via their mobile phones.

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Mobile Schools Health 

Mobile Schools Health works with its partners to deliver optometry, dentistry and primary healthcare services to South African children in underserved communities.

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VIA Global Health

Via Global Health is the leading global health purchasing platform. With a network of verified medical distributors, VIA streamlines the medical supply chain into emerging markets.

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What next?

Entrepreneurs thrive best when they have communities to draw upon. Through the MAN Impact Accelerator, we have developed a strong community of changemakers. Rather than providing funding or taking equity, the 8-month program provides founders with industry expertise, tactical mentoring, input from serial entrepreneurs, and connections with a broad community to help accelerate their impactful innovations. The dedicated team behind the program have developed a well-structured curriculum to assist the startups with different themes on the road to scale, and the results seen from last year speak for themselves. We also look forward to building, once again, important bridges between startup entrepreneurial thinking and the corporate culture.

Let’s unite, connect, innovate and get inspired. We invite you to meet our startups in person at the GSBS in Wolfsburg in November, or you can follow our journey on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook to see where all the teams are heading throughout this journey.  To get involved with the startups, please do not hesitate to ask us for an introduction as they would love to engage with you. There will be exclusive opportunities for investors, mentors and press to meet the entrepreneurs on our world tour to Bangalore, Cape Town, San Francisco and finally at the closing ceremony in Munich (June, 2019) where they will present their newly acquired skills and accomplishments of their 8-month journey in front of hundreds.

We can't wait to share all the accelerator happenings with you!

For any media enquiries, please contact solene@yunussb.com our Communications Manager for MAN Impact Accelerator.

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