Three well-established “social enterprises,” Sankara Eye Care Institutions, Eco-fuel Africa and Medical Technology Transfer and Services (MTTS) are among the 16 chosen businesses for the 12th annual Global Social Benefit Institute (GSBI) Accelerator program at Santa Clara University.
With a goal to help budding entrepreneurs focus on and solve the largest obstacles keeping their businesses from scaling, this acclaimed 10-month program pairs one leader from each social enterprise with start-up savvy Silicon Valley executives and advisers.
“This year we received the strongest applicant pool of leading social entrepreneurs to date,” said Cassandra Staff, GSBI’s program director. “This speaks to the value of the GSBI Accelerator program and the impact the program has on preparing mature entrepreneurs for additional investment capital and growth.”
The cohort will spend six months of online work with GSBI staff and two Silicon Valley mentors apiece, before coming to Santa Clara University’s campus in August for nine days of intensive training. The program ends with the “Investor Showcase” on August 21. In past years, the showcase has been attended by hundreds of impact investors and others interested in accelerating the work of social entrepreneurs.
A compete ist of GSBI mentors can be found here.