Media Note
Through a public-private partnership, the Office of Global Partnerships at the U.S. Department of State and Unreasonable Group welcome the participation of 16 entrepreneurs in the inaugural Unreasonable Goals accelerator program.
The program will launch on July 2 at the Aspen Institute’s Wye River Estate in Queenstown, MD and will run annually until 2030. This year’s two-week program is designed to bring together 16 entrepreneurial solutions, each with a mission of solving one of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Additional 2017 collaborators include: Johnson & Johnson, Lowe’s, Thomson Reuters, Bluescape, Amazon Web Services, and PeaceTech Lab.
Cumulatively, the companies of the 16 entrepreneurs taking part in the inaugural Unreasonable Goals program have raised over $138M USD, generated revenue of over $85M and are already impacting nearly 45 million people in 45 countries.
The 16 entrepreneurs participating in this year’s inaugural accelerator program include: 1mg, a consumer health app with a mission of making healthcare more understandable, accessible, and affordable; Liberty & Justice, Africa’s first Fair Trade Certified™ apparel manufacturing company with a 90% female workforce that also donates school uniforms to children with every purchase; and Desalitech, an industrial scale desalination and wastewater purification company that has saved nearly 3 billion gallons of water to date.
The inaugural program will conclude with a public event on July 13, 2017, at the U.S. Institute of Peace in Washington, DC. If interested, learn more by visiting https://unreasonable-goals.com/.
Information on the companies participating in the July 2017 inaugural program:
Babajob (Goal #1: No Poverty) is a digital platform that connects aspiring workers to better jobs and enables employers to hire them. Babajob has registered over 7 million job seekers in India.
Agrinos (Goal #2: Zero Hunger) is seeking to improve the productivity and sustainability of the modern farmer through proprietary crop input products, for the purpose of reducing the need for traditional pesticides and ensure healthier soil.
1mg (Goal #3: Good Health and Well-Being) a consumer health platform in India whose mission is to make healthcare understandable, accessible, and affordable. To date, 1mg has over 8M downloads and 14M monthly visits.
Tamboro (Goal #4: Quality Education) provides a personalized, adaptive, and game-based learning platform for over 30,000 basic education students across Brazil.
Liberty & Justice (Goal #5: Gender Equality) is Africa’s first Fair Trade Certified™ apparel manufacturing company, where 25% of the company’s directors are women and 25% are independent.
Desalitech (Goal #6: Clean Water and Sanitation) provides scale desalination and wastewater purification. To date, Desalitech has saved nearly 3 billion gallons of water.
Carnegie Clean Energy (Goal #7: Affordable and Clean Energy) is the world’s first company to offer a combination of desalination, battery storage, as well as wave, solar, and wind energy via microgrids.
Uncommon Cacao (Goal #8: Decent Work and Economic Growth) is building the world’s first vertically integrated, transparently sourced supply chain for cacao.
SimpliPhi Power (Goal #9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure) has a mission intended to design and manufacture safe, durable, efficient, and scalable batteries for clean energy storage and management.
VOZ (Goal #10: Reduced Inequalities) seeks to empower rural, indigenous, female artisans via ethical and ecologically sustainable luxury fashion. Voz was recently named by Vogue.com as one of the top five sustainable fashion brands.
EcoPost (Goal #11: Sustainable Cities and Communities) seeks to transform plastic waste into a durable, eco-friendly, and 100 percent recycled lumber substitute with a longer lifespan than wood. To date, EcoPost has reused 2.5 million kilograms of plastic waste and has saved 450 acres of forest.
OrganoClick (Goal #12: Responsible Production and Consumption) replaces hazardous petroleum-based chemicals and thus seeks to replace millions of tons of CO2 with non-toxic, bio-based chemicals and polymers.
SEaB Energy (Goal #13: Climate Action) produces energy from waste using the process of anaerobic digestion. Their on-site containers convert waste into electricity, heat, organic fertilizer, and water.
Pelagic Data Systems (Goal #14: Life Below Water) provides solar-powered tracking and data solutions for small-scale fisheries around the world, seeking to improve livelihoods and measure the impact of climate change on marine systems.
EcoFlora Group (Goal #15: Life on Land) is seeking to pioneer the development of plant-based extracts as safe alternatives to unhealthy and toxic pesticides and food additives, resulting in sustainable crop protection.
Colab (Goal #16: Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions) seeks to transform politics by enabling citizens to participate in the decision-making process of their local government in unprecedented ways. To date, thousands of people use Colab in over 2,000 Brazilian cities.
About U.S. Department of State
The U.S. Department of State’s mission is to shape and sustain a peaceful, prosperous, just, and democratic world and foster conditions for stability and progress for the benefit of the American people and people everywhere. This mission is shared with the USAID, ensuring we have a common path forward in partnership as we invest in the shared security and prosperity that will ultimately better prepare us for the challenges of tomorrow. For further information about the U.S. State Department, please visit our website, https://www.state.gov/.
About Unreasonable Group
Unreasonable’s mission is to drive resources to and breakdown barriers for entrepreneurs solving key global challenges (i.e. ensuring renewable energy reaches the 1.3 billion people currently without electricity, reimagining the future of healthcare, or addressing the global unemployment crisis). Through running worldwide accelerator programs, a globally oriented private equity fund, an extensive network of serial business leaders as mentors, and advanced storytelling and media activities, Unreasonable is designed to exclusively support entrepreneurs positioned to solve society’s toughest problems. For further information about Unreasonable, please visit our website, http://www.unreasonablegroup.com.
Media Inquiries:
Anita Ostrovsky, Office of Global Partnerships
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