Unilever-Backed Impact Accelerator, TRANSFORM, Announces Funding for more Impact Enterprises in Kenya, East Africa

Unilever-Backed Impact Accelerator, TRANSFORM, Announces Funding for More Impact Enterprises in Kenya, East Africa

TRANSFORM, an impact accelerator that unites corporates, donors, investors, and academics to support visionary enterprises, has announced to support of businesses in Kenya to scale new solutions and overcome global challenges.

Led by Unilever, the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (FCDO), and EY, TRANSFORM advances the development of innovative business models through a combination of grant funding, business insight, and research to help solve global challenges. 

TRANSFORM is now 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, it has today announced support for fifteen new projects since January, with each receiving a tailor-made combination of funding and business support.

Rebecca Marmot, Unilever’s Chief Sustainability Officer, said: “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. “

He also added, “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.”

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 has been working with revolutionary businesses including supporting them. Two of the companies, Kasha and Mr. Green Africa are alumni of Nairobi Garage:

• Taka Taka Ni Mali to create over 3,800 jobs and recycle over 1,500 tonnes of wealth by scaling capacity and building a digital platform to link waste collectors, aggregators, and recyclers in Kenya;
• 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; and
• Africa’s first recycling B Corp business, Mr Green Africa, to develop a new model of work for waste pickers, directly improving safety, benefits, and career growth opportunities for more than 1000 people in Kenya.

TRANSFORM has supported over 100 projects in 17 countries.

Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office Chief Scientific Adviser Professor Charlotte Watts, said: “This is a major milestone for this innovative project, which is offering 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.”

Richard Taylor, EY’s UK&I Consumer Sector Leader, said: “TRANSFORM further demonstrates our 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.”

For more details about the program and how you can become part of the accelerator program, click the link here!

Unilever is one of the leading suppliers of food, home and personal care products in Kenya. With about 19,000 employees, Unilever is one of the largest private employers in the region.

Working to create a better future every day, Unilever helps people feel good, look good and get more out of life.

Its portfolio includes the most loved locally produced brands, OMO, Sunlight, Blue Band, Royco, Geisha and Vaseline, as well as key world’s renowned brands, like Knorr, Dove, Lux, Axe, among many others.