AMA, Ambev’s mineral water that allocates 100% of its profits to projects that are creating solutions for access to water, have launched, on September 13, Ama Accelerator – Innovation for Access to Water, a social business accelerator to boost innovative solutions that tackles water scarcity. Registrations are open to entrepreneurs from all over the world. Yunus Social Business Brazil will be responsible for planning and conducting training, mentoring and workshops.
Entries can be made through Pipe.Social, a platform that showcases social and environmental business, until October 14th on the link: http://bit.ly/amaaccelerator . Projects will be evaluated according four criteria: solution already tested or prototyped; socio-environmental impact; prediction of financial sustainability; and team of entrepreneurs involved. Another important evaluation criterion is replicability in Brazil, especially in communities of Brazilian northeast semiarid region.
From October to January 2018, selected entrepreneurs will pass through mentorship and training of specialized professionals, according to the needs of each business. Considering the problem’s complexity, they will also be encouraged to think and co-create solutions with other participants. Yunus Social Business, with vast expertise in business acceleration, will be responsible for planning and conducting training, mentoring and workshops. Entrepreneurs will also have the chance to get to know problem’s reality: a field immersion in a semi-arid community is part of the journey.
At the end of the program, businesses might be selected to receive financial investment to enable their business model. The amount invested will come from AMA’s sales profit. “We want to find people with similar goals, people that are looking for ways to bring water to people who do not have it. We can make innovative projects possible and we want to do this alongside entrepreneurs who can bring incredible ideas to this cause”, says Carla Crippa, Sustainability Manager at Ambev.
“AMA was born as a social business and therefore, in our vision, it is important that it can financially support new social businesses. The amount invested at the selected businesses must return to AMA, allowing a recurrent and perennial investment source to be invested in new social businesses in the future”, says Evelin Giometti, Head of Corporate Projects at Yunus Social Business Brazil.
Up to five entrepreneurs will be selected to participate in the acceleration program. Selected businesses will be announced in October.
INFORMATION:
Submissions: http://bit.ly/amaaccelerator
Final date: October 14th
Official information: http://blog.pipe.social/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Edital-Ama-Aceleradora-2017_eng.pdf
Questions: aceleradoraama@yunusnegociossociais.com