Phuntshok started Guram, a candy making business, to help reduce the amount of candies imported by Bhutan and to give the farmers of Bhutan a platform for understanding the benefits of different herbs and spices by incorporating them into candies. The focus of Guram is to use Bhutanese ingredients only in order to create delicious mouth-watering candies to replace imported candies and to be a company which helps the community around it through social work. In the future, Guram aims to be one of the biggest candy manufacturing business in the country and replace all imports.
“There will always be forces in the world that keep telling us that nothing will work out and what we do will never measure up to anything but it is up to us not to ignore but to build in what they are saying to us.”
Petteri is focused on growing his business quickly to become one of the biggest companies to offer personal assistance in Finland. He received his inspiration from helping people and wants to grow his company by buying competitors’ businesses and acquiring more products.
Omar created Remora Inc with the purpose of providing clean water to communities in need while increasing the water quality in all water sources. The Remora machine integrates water filtering, water quality monitoring and bacterial management in one system, alongside an educational program to make communities more sustainable in an economic, social and environmental way. Omar hopes that Remora expands all across the Island and the world as an innovative way to tackle the water crisis.
“As I like to call it, we in Remora have a head for business and a heart for the world.”
Austrian, Brazilian and Filipino, Noel is a 22 year old global citizen, law student and social entrepreneur. In 2017, he founded social business Amana Katu to universalize access to clean water in the Amazon through sustainable, low-cost rainwater harvesting systems. Now with a second product line, his goal has expanded to include reducing water waste in small-scale agriculture through hybrid drip irrigation and hydroponic systems. Noel envisions a future where Amana Katu offers complete solutions for sustainable and low-cost water access and use, in the Amazon and beyond.
“I believe social business to be a powerful tool to guarantee basic human rights and sustainably develop communities.”
Lilian Nakigozi, founder and Executive Director of Women Smiles Uganda, is a social entrepreneur who is passionate about women’s empowerment and entrepreneurship. Growing up in Katanga slum, she has experienced hunger and poverty at a young age with her family. For her entire life, Lilian has dedicated her knowledge and skills to avail women and young girls in underserved communities with platforms that enable them to grow crops for both food and livelihood in limited spaces. Her vision for Women Smiles is to provide 2 million women without land with vertical farms to practice agriculture.
“I want to do business that helps people and touches the lives of many that even after decades people would still say they benefited and it is because of Lilian Nakigozi that their lives changed for the better.”
From a very young age, Nahim volunteered with different organizations and foundations on causes ranging from the environment to sick children. It is that empathic sense that allowed him to form a team and develop Begumm during a summer program called Trepcamp at NYU. Begumm is a social impact company that creates bio plastic frame glasses made out of recyclable materials like chewing gum with a buy-one give-one business model in order to marry the commercial purpose with a social value.
Musa Maluleka started Disktjie to make soccer boots that were specifically designed to play on the gravel soccer pitches in Africa, but later also diversified into making shin pads. The current focus of the business is mainly in the soccer industry. Musa hopes to take control of some market share over the next 3-5 years and build brand equity and awareness.
Muhammad Ali Khursheed started Aabshar Solutions Pvt Ltd with the aim to promote sustainable living and to assure water availability in the future. Aabshar originated from his pain. Four years ago, Muhammad suffered from severe liver damage because of the lack of availability of fresh water in his body. After recovery, he realized that 2,270 people (W.H.O. report) are dying every day because of lack of water. Aabshar’s first clean tech product, “Water Optimizer,” is installed as an add-on to water taps and saves up to 98% of the water, up to 40% of electrical energy and up to 60% on CO2 emissions. Muhammad Ali Khursheed hopes to expand globally as water scarcity is a global issue.
“I believe and always prefer creating a Social Impact over Money. My team and I believe Money is bi-product of an Impact.”
Moses is a diehard fan of alternative technologies. The decision to co-found MagoFarm was derived from his passion for circular economies where organic waste is continuously upcycled to produce quality products. Moses started MagoFarm as an innovation that recycles organic waste from dumpsites, local markets and homes into nutrient-rich protein, organic fertilizer, lauric acid and bio-gases. Moses firmly believes that in the next five years, MagoFarm will grow its operations across East, Central and Southern Africa in the quest to promote a waste-free Africa.
“I don’t just work hard to earn a living, I also strive to make a difference and to be remembered long after I have died.”
Eco Trofeos began as a response to the massive import of plastic in the awards sector. They began their approach with a triple impact, the main objective being to reduce and replace industrial plastic with recycled materials. They work to include people with disabilities in the workplace and are working to build a country brand that has a replicable business model and is scalable in the replacement of recycled materials.
