The Unilever-backed impact accelerator programme, TRANSFORM, reveals that “more impact enterprises” across East Africa will now be able to access Sh1 million funding per SME.
The new funding, valued at Sh1 million, Unilever said, will help support SMEs especially in Kenya to scale new solutions and overcome global challenges.
“We’re thrilled to have reached such an important milestone at TRANSFORM. Some of the best new ideas and groundbreaking solutions are coming from entrepreneurs and start-ups,” Unilever’s chief sustainability officer Rebecca Marmot said during the announcement of the new funding.
TRANSFORM, which is an impact accelerator that unites corporates, donors, investors, and academics to support visionary enterprises, has over the years benefitted at least 10 million people through its support and focus on various enterprises across Africa, Asia, and beyond since its launch in 2015. Of this figure, an estimated one million beneficiaries are said to have been from within the East African region.
Led by Unilever, the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (FCDO), and EY, the programme will educate trainees and businesses on ways to develop innovative business models through a combination of grant funding, business insight, and research to help solve global challenges.
“By blending local innovation with the resources of large organizations, Transform is unlocking these opportunities, helping to scale workable solutions and drive progress. It’s also helping us to expand our own networks. We look forward to supporting more enterprises in the future and being part of this dynamic eco-system,” Ms Marmot added.
Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office chief scientific adviser Professor Charlotte Watts on the other hand said that the new funding was a major milestone and would offer targeted support to ambitious entrepreneurs and innovators across sub-Saharan Africa
and Asia.
“As this cutting-edge initiative enters the next phase, the UK will continue to work in partnership with business and civil society to tackle the world’s biggest social, environmental, and economic challenges,” said Prof Watts.
Richard Taylor, EY’s UK&I consumer sector leader, said the added funding by TRANSFORM demonstrates their shared belief that impact entrepreneurs will be critical in driving progress towards the UN SDGs.
“We hope that more organizations will feel inspired to join the Transform initiative and help us transform more lives,” said Taylor.
The programme is currently focused on accelerating its impact, with the ambitious goal of reaching an additional five million lives across the next two years. In addition to the support given to the existing projects by entrepreneurs and researchers, in mid-September 2023, it announced support for 15 new projects since January, with each receiving a tailor-made combination of funding and business support.
One of the new enterprises in East Africa will test the use of refill technology with Unilever products in low-income communities in Kenya.
Transform also supports researchers and is working with Brink to explore the future of work for the informal economy in Kenya.
Research shows it has positively impacted over one million people in East Africa out of the 10 million people across Africa and Asia. Since its launch in Kenya in 2015, TRANSFORM is working with revolutionary businesses including supporting:
Some of the enterprises that the initiative has collaborated with over the last couple of months include Taka Taka ni Mali to create over 3,800 jobs and recycle over 1,500 tonnes of wealth as well as Kasha to expand its confidential health services from Rwanda into Kenya, so more women can access the products they need.
Following that success, Kasha has attracted $21 million in investment to enable further expansion into Western Africa and South Africa
Others also include Africa’s first recycling B Corp business, Mr Green Africa, has developed a new model of work for waste pickers after collaborating with TRANSFORM, thereby directly improving safety, benefits, and career growth opportunities for more than 1000 people in Kenya.
