Ten years at C3
Published on The Entrepreneur Middle East
“The factory cannot just look at its profit margin. It must distribute wealth, culture, services, and democracy. I think the factory for man, not man for the factory.”
— Adriano Olivetti [April 11, 1901- February 27, 1960]
I grew up in the small town of Ivrea, Italy, that was once a model for workers’ rights and corporate responsibility. All thanks to Olivetti, a designer and manufacturer of typewriters, accounting machines, and personal computers, I experienced first-hand the change that one private company can bring to an entire city when guided by impact-driven leaders. Despite my parents not working at Olivetti, I was given access to medical and sports facilities, art and culture initiatives, extra-curriculum, and educational activities, and much more - Olivetti’s initiatives did not only extend to his employees, but also to the full community of Ivrea. This coupled with government provisions of basic services, as well as charitable initiatives for underprivileged minorities created an ecosystem that gave incredible opportunities to children of each and every family, regardless of their wealth.
Olivetti inspired me to see any business as a potential force for good, and its impact on my personal life drove me to launch C3 – Companies Creating Change, a platform helping emerging change-makers use the power of business to make a change in the world: If one private company could positively impact an entire town for more than a century, imagine what a community of innovative founders that are intentional about impact, backed by like-minded investors, and operating in a conducive ecosystem can do to the MEA region and emerging economies across the globe. Impact-driven founders have plenty to focus on: building a great business solution that aligns with their mission, creating a sound governance structure, securing funding, measuring, and scaling their impact, while bringing financial returns to their investors. Yet, many pioneering C3 – Companies Creating Change alumni have shown it is possible, and more VC-backed founders realise they are already on that path. They are using the power of business to bring systemic change to their community, and to the world.
Building the C3 platform
At C3, we believe that a purpose-led business contributes more to humankind than any other type of organisation. The MEA region challenges are increasingly daunting, despite decades of international aid, government investments, and generous private donations. C3’s vision is to help good businesses become great at solving the world’s most pressing issues. We have a growing network of more than 2,500 impact-driven founders, and we have accelerated more than 200 startups through our flagship programmes. With a 96% survival rate, hundreds of millions of dollars raised, and incredible awards received, they make us proud every day!
Between 2012 and 2014, C3 focused on raising awareness and building a community of like–minded professionals. Robin Low describes in his book Good Intentions Are Not Enough how people want to do good, but they like to do it at their convenience. He highlights that the principle essential to effective impact is to engage, enable, empower, and connect. It is therefore vital that we understand the challenges before trying to solve them, and who is better placed to create solutions than the local change-makers? On that premise, C3 launched a series of volunteer-led initiatives from speed-consulting events and workshop series to “Social Enterprise Weeks”– all in collaboration with local partners like Dubai Chamber of Commerce, Dubai Cares, and Acumen Fund, as well as pioneering social entrepreneurs, for example, Evolvin' Women, Slices, Lamsa, and Democrance.
In 2015, while the UN was adopting the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), C3 was awarded the first international Social Enterprise Mark and launched the first pilot of its flagship SDG-focused accelerator programme. The first editions of the program helped C3 be recognised, in 2017, as a UN SDGs pioneer for outstanding contribution to Goal #17, "Partnerships for the Goals.” This led HSBC to choose to back our platform and enabled the C3 Impact Accelerator to scale from the UAE to 9 countries in the MENAT region.
Between 2018 and 2021, we streamlined our operations and scaled regionally to extend our reach across the MEAT region and achieved a new level of efficiency without compromising on programme quality: thanks to automation, we significantly cut program management costs, while reaching outstanding program NPS scores. The support of HSBC and other sponsors and clients like Accenture, Standard Chartered, Engie, and Discovery, amplified by the travel restrictions during the pandemic, drove C3 to:
Digitalise and streamline content and operations, now combined in a unique blended learning experience for impact- driven founders
Develop a proprietary ‘growth' framework and a comprehensive toolset focused on learning outcomes, including the ‘Growth Predictor Test and Report’ providing early-stage founders with a diagnostic overview of their growth potential and suggesting areas for improvement
Combine multiple learning modules, such as impact and business fundamentals, into modular and customisable programs (spanning from Investor Readiness Programme, Board Readiness Programmes, to SDGs-focused Programme, I.D.E.A. Inclusion Diversity Equity and Access Programme, etc.)
Expand to the MENAT region and accelerate 200 startups from 18 countries, creating a network of 2,500 impact- focused founders, 4,000 experts, and 150 investment firms.
Over the years, C3 had the privilege of supporting incredible founders who are intentional about scaling purpose-led businesses to tackle some of the most critical issues that humanity is currently facing. Success stories include Desert Control which successfully IPOed in 2021, the energy and desalination start-up Hydro Wind Energy which secured EUR–50m funding pledge, and Almentor which secured multiple rounds of funding and significantly scaled their impact and reach, just to name a few.
Enabling systemic change through holistic and inclusive innovation
While C3 has enabled so many emerging changemakers today, we remember a time when being “impact-driven” was an idealistic theory. Few people believed the triple bottom line was attainable and for most, it was not clear what it meant. It was a worrying perspective to have for a world that needs to encourage and support purpose-driven founders more than ever. Fortunately, and more so after the pandemic, there is now a widespread understanding today about how important it is and what it means to run an impact-driven business. Now that impact-driven founders have a ‘social license’ to operate, it is time they lean into their mission and leverage it to create more sustainable, resilient, and ultimately successful enterprises.
To bring systemic change in emerging economies, grassroots innovation needs to focus on holistic and inclusive solutions to pressing societal and environmental challenges. For example, if the focus of a business is on green mobility, the solution needs to be affordable to ensure adoption in emerging economies; when a blockchain-based marketplace is launched in energy-scarce markets, the chosen blockchain protocol needs to be efficient in terms of energy consumption; if a food security solution is introduced in arid areas of the planet, it needs to leverage widely available natural resources (i.e. salted water), rather than scarce natural resources (i.e. fresh water).
Moreover, companies that focus on impact from the get-go should seek alignment between their mission and financial performance, avoiding having to find tradeoffs between returns and impact. This is as opposed to side-impact initiatives that do not align with their core business model. Specifically, they should start with crafting and testing a solid Theory of Change (ToC), while developing a customer value proposition with a sustainable business model. They must make an effort to measure impact on the ground, and eventually, refine their ToC if needed. Finally, it is paramount that founders of impact-driven businesses develop a solid governance structure that includes ESG risk mitigation strategies to ensure that all the basic ‘not-do-harm' principles are met.
The only way forward is together
A company’s mission strengthens resilience and creates shareholder and stakeholder value – but founders cannot do it alone. To make their impact targets a reality and create sustainable change, they need all stakeholders to contribute to creating an environment where they can flourish: Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), governments, academia, corporate organisations, and investors have an opportunity to join and support the journey of incredible change-makers.
NGOs can share their grassroots experience and know-how on what works or does not work on the ground. While these organisations' efforts should continue to be geared towards disaster relief and emergency response, impact-driven founders could leverage the incredible knowledge and data collected in decades of NGO activities.
Governments play a key role in spurring innovation. Beyond providing infrastructure, regulations, and tax incentives, government subsidies and grants are arguably the most effective ways to increase deep tech and pre-commercialisation innovation.
Academia can provide educational fundamentals around impact to aspiring business leaders and support the ecosystem with research capabilities, in particular around impact frameworks and reference baselines.
Corporate organisations in the private sector are increasingly aware of their impact on the environment or society and embedding mitigation and retribution at the core of their strategy. They can partner with existing players in the impact and entrepreneurship space, thereby supporting initiatives where they can add value and from which their business can benefit. That is exactly what clients and sponsors have done with C3 in the past years: enabling C3’s growth while receiving the opportunity to partner with innovative founders relevant to their corporate strategy.
Lastly, impact investing is gradually becoming mainstream. BlackRock anticipates that by 2030, over 75% of its investments in companies and governments will be tied to net-zero emissions targets - up from 25% now. Citibank provides thorough analysis regarding investor shifts from impact awareness to proactively contributing to and measuring impact. This is especially the case in emerging economies, where the fastest-growing solutions address critical societal and environmental challenges: from food security to financial and healthcare inclusion to accessible learning and job readiness, just to name a few. Investors who embrace this new wave of innovation see a lower risk – as suggested by the 97% survival rate and the successful fundraising rounds of C3-accelerated startups – and potentially higher returns for LPs.
After a couple of years of closer collaboration, Global Ventures and C3 are now exploring ways to join forces and further support early-stage regional change-makers. Global Ventures has partnered with incredible founders in HealthTech and diagnostics (i.e. Proximie, Helium Health, Altibbi, Valeo, Vivoo, Ilara, and Remedial Health), in financial inclusion (i.e. Paymob, Nowpay, Mamopay, Abhi, Tabby, Democrance, and Pyypl), in EdTech (i.e. Nexford, Lamsa and Meta School), as well as in Enterprise SaaS and FoodTech.
Global Ventures has also started investing in AgriTech (i.e. Red Sea Farms), sustainable food (i.e. Seafood Souq), future of work (i.e. Minly, Ogram, Neol) and green mobility (i.e. Max). We will continue to explore these spaces with curious interest, as we feel the potential of these solutions is immense, considering how many segments of the population are still excluded from basic services in the region. We are also truly excited about the new wave of founders focusing on energy transition, carbon tech, land and water use, food systems, as well as mobility, and job readiness.
Grassroots solutions for and from the frontier will continue to attract backing from investors worldwide. Not only because of the growth potential and large untapped markets of emerging economies, but also because of the inherently innovative and resource-efficient approaches that local founders bring to global societal challenges. Supporting them will give humanity a better chance at realising a global transition to a sustainable, just, and inclusive future.