Three inspiring social ventures have been selected for the 2024 DIF Accelerator Challenge – a six-month programme of intensive free support delivered by DIF Capital Partners and Allia. Starting in May, this is the third Accelerator Challenge in which DIF has teamed up with Allia, offering bespoke mentoring and coaching to help the ventures address various hurdles and scale their businesses. On completion of the Challenge in November 2024, the programme will culminate in a pitch day where founders will present their venture to an audience from DIF and Allia with an opportunity to receive a grant funding of up to £50,000 to help them further develop their business.
The successful venture selected to make it through to the Challenge are:
Even: Even makes affordable period underwear for refugee women to replace the disposable pads received in aid packages, which it believes are undignified, expensive, and massively wasteful. Even’s underwear shaves 80% of the cost, waste, and warehousing volume compared to the humanitarian sector’s current offerings.
Cogs AI: Cogs AI is social tech company ending inequality for the neurodivergent community across healthcare, employment and education. Its first product is a mobile app that is currently supporting 15,000 neurodivergent service users through the NHS.
Send it to Alex: Send it to Alex is a virtual employment support service for disabled and neurodivergent individuals. It has created a user-friendly and scalable SaaS platform, that meets the needs of each neurodivergent individual and their manager.
On their selection for the DIF Accelerator Challenge, Zareen Ali, CEO and Co-founder of Cogs AI said:
At Cogs AI, we’re ambitious about scaling our company to create impact for the neurodivergent community. Working with DIF will give us access to commercial mentors and advisors that can support us as we grow the business by selling into the NHS, as well as putting us on a strong footing to raise investment in this difficult funding environment.”
Jason Loo, Director at DIF Capital Partners,said:
After 2 successful runs of the DIF-Allia Accelerator Challenge, we are excited to be partnering with Allia again to welcome our 3rd cohort of ventures. We can’t wait to embark on yet another fun-filled, inspiring and impactful 6-month collaboration with 3 new ventures who are truly making a difference in our society!”
Kathryn Ore, Allia’s Programme Manager added:
As we embark on our third year of partnership with DIF Capital Partners, we are energised by the opportunity to champion social ventures that drive positive change. At Allia, we remain committed to amplifying the voices of underrepresented entrepreneurs who tackle society’s most urgent challenges. Our collaboration with remarkable social ventures in the DIF Accelerator Challenge exemplifies our unwavering dedication to fostering innovation, equity, and impact.’’
Previous DIF Accelerator Challenge winners are: GrandNanny, Greater Change, Appt, Paige, Lylo Products, InCommon.
If you are interested in sponsoring or joining an Accelerator Challenge or any of Allia’s venture support programmes, please email our team of business experts and advisors on hello@alliaimpact.co.uk.
