Acumen and IKEA Social Entrepreneurship co-created a five month accelerator programme to strengthen the work of 19 social entrepreneurs across East Africa. It combined online learning and coaching support to the social entrepreneurs, with IKEA co-workers (coaches) playing an active role in sharing their knowledge, skills and experiences. This allowed the social entrepreneurs to scale their work and have a bigger impact on the lives of the people who need it the most. Participants learned the value of engaging with customers, modeling finances for sustainability, and developing marketing strategy.

The program gave them support during a period when the existence of the social enterprise was threatened. It gave them guidelines on what it means to take the next step (after the crisis is over) and support for their leadership in the enterprise as well embracing an experimenting culture.

IKEA Coach

As part of this accelerator, Acumen and IKEA Social Entrepreneurship awarded Jony Girma of Green Face Trading in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and Kevine Kagirimpundu of UZURI K&Y in Kigali, Rwanda with $25,000 grants to further support their business growth.

Read Acumen's summary of the accelerator programme and its successes here.