Nearly a year after Chivas Regal began its search for the next big idea in Social Enterprise, The Final Pitch, was held at the Herbst Pavilion in San Francisco to choose the winners of the $1 Million start-up funding distributed amongst the five remaining social businesses.
The “Live with Chivalry” campaign aims to inspire a new generation to achieve success while making a positive impact on the lives of others. The campaign seeks to encourage entrepreneurs who believe that business can be both profitable and enable positive change by inviting them to join “The Venture”, Chivas’ global search for the most promising social entrepreneurs from around the world.
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The campaign saw more than a thousand social entrepreneurs apply for $1 million in funding. The Final Pitch event was attended by a range of high profile entrepreneurs and business leaders from Silicon Valley and beyond. Also in the audience was Golden Globe nominated actor Oscar Isaac who starred in Chivas Regal’s Win The Right Way film, which helped launch The Venture by issuing a challenge to aspiring social entrepreneurs and the world at large to re-frame their meaning of success.
The judging panel which included Adrian Grenier, Sonal Shah, Alex Ricard and Morgan Clendaniel, assessed each business based on their ability to create sustainable change through a viable business model and potential to scale.
The announcement of the winners came after the five finalists pitched the potential of their start-up to create transformative social change to an expert judging panel that included actor and social entrepreneur Adrian Grenier.
Here are the Top 5 Winner’s in the Social Enterprise Campaign and the services they represent.
Company: Algramo
Award: $300,000
Country: Chile
Founder: Jose Manuel Moller Dominguez
Overview of Company: Affordable food is hard to come by in the outskirts of Santiago, Chile. There are few supermarkets and the produce at small stores can often be up to 40% more expensive than in larger outlets. To address this issue, we at Algramo, buy essential products such as rice, beans, lentils and sugar in bulk from suppliers and distribute them directly to small convenience stores, through our unique mechanical dispensers.
Company: Chipsafer
Award: $150,000
Country: Uruguay
Founder: Victoria Alonsoperez
Overview of Company: Chipsafer is a platform that will transform the way farmers care for their livestock. It not only tracks and detects anomalies in cattle behavior, but does so remotely, autonomously and in real time. Chipsafer then sends all this information directly to the farmer, who can access it on a laptop or phone.
Company: SenSprout
Award: $150,000
Country: Japan
Overview of Company: SenSprout’s mission is to make farming more efficient, to produce more crops using less water. We help farmers better understand their crops and fields with our low-cost sensor technology. Our wireless field-monitoring system is enabled by a unique “printed electronics” senor, making it possible to monitor soil conditions and environmental information in real time.
Company: Lumkani
Award: $75,000
Country: South Africa
Founder: David Gluckman
Overview of Company: At Lumkani we use technology to decrease the risk of devastating fires in informal settlements. Our innovative fire detector was designed to mitigate the loss of life and property caused by the spread of shack fires.
Company: Diseclar
Award: $75,000
Country: Columbia
Founder: Juan Nicolas Suarez Bonilla
Overview of Company: Where others see rubbish, garbage and waste, we at Diseclar see furniture. Thanks to our inventive manufacturing process we’re able to turn waste materials into stylish furniture that can be used in and outdoors.
Speaking on behalf of the finalists Jose Manuel Moller Dominguez from Algramo added:
“What a night! I can’t believe I’ve received $300,000 in funding from Chivas – it’s truly life changing for me. The money will enable me to scale the business and really take it to the next level. I’m truly grateful for this experience and can’t wait to apply everything I’ve learnt since being in San Francisco.”
Pernod Ricard’s Chairman and CEO, and The Venture judge, Alex Ricard, expressed his and the brand’s commitment to the world of social entrepreneurship, and congratulated the winner:
“All five of the social entrepreneurs who pitched for funding tonight have founded innovative and inspiring social enterprises, each providing sustainable solutions for different issues. Ultimately Jose from Algramo demonstrated a concrete proof of concept and really convinced us that The Venture funding could deliver tremendous transformative change for their business. We’re extremely proud of the first year of The Venture and Chivas is looking forward to continuing this legacy in years to come.”
