Scaling Impact

If selected, you will be in a cohort of 6-12 enterprises participating in the program. Scaling Impact offers a menu of activities, delivered over a 5-month period, that build investment readiness, including:

• Masterclasses facilitated by relevant experts
• Investment readiness diagnostic session
• Tailored advisory
• 1 on 1 mentoring and coaching
• Peer support and facilitated networking
• Introductions to investors and opportunities to pitch
• Co-working space

We will be running the masterclasses and investment readiness diagnostic virtually through online tools and envisage some face to face touchpoints for tailored advisory and mentoring depending on COVID-19 restrictions and your location. All components of the program are designed around an entrepreneur’s particular goals. By the end of the program social entrepreneurs in the program will have taken concrete steps forward on the path to becoming investment ready.

By the end of the Scaling Impact program you will have materially progressed your enterprise’s readiness for impact investment. If your enterprise is impact investment ready you will have the opportunity to pitch to investors and impact investment funds at the program’s completion. You will also have had the opportunity to develop your interpersonal, communication, listening, management, and other ‘soft skills’ necessary for building your business and you will have made warm connections in the sector.

Taking place in October 2022, Demo Day is the culminating event for the Scaling Impact program. It is a fantastic opportunity to present your social enterprise in front of sector leaders, mentors, government and community supporters, industry partners, and impact investors.

We have a diverse team of professionals with a vast range of expertise and experience. While we may not have mentors with direct experience in every niche market that our enterprises operate in, they will have the skills that are relevant to getting investment ready such as strengthening business models, financial modelling and valuation, impact measurement etc.

We are an accelerator operating in Sydney, but we serve the whole of Australia. We are unique in that we focus on impact investment readiness for all socially or environmentally focused enterprises. Many others are commercially focused or are focused on earlier stage enterprises.

The tailored advisory will involve enterprises working with highly skilled professionals from both EY and our Professional Impact Network on areas of your business where bespoke support is required with the aim of becoming technically ready for impact investment. The Impact Investment Readiness diagnostic will help inform where you need tailored advisory support.

All travel will be at the enterprises' own expense. Our program has been delivered entirely virtually during COVID-19 and despite the challenges, participants have formed strong connections with their cohort members.

As part of the program, you will be matched with two mentors:

1. an EY senior staff member, who will work with you on your personal development and growth and help you develop your communication, stress management, resilience and management skills. The mentors are selected carefully for their skill sets that are relevant to each enterprise at the stage they are at, so they can provide specific and tailored assistance to meet their needs.
2. a mentor from Tanarra Capital who will provide investment mentoring, including reviewing your pitch deck and providing guidance on your approach to pitching to and interacting with potential investors.

The purpose of Scaling Impact program is to progress the investment readiness of all participants in the program and assist in the preparation for raising capital. We make no guarantee of a successful capital raising for any of the enterprises.

You will have the opportunity to present to international impact investors at Demo Day. You will also have tailored advice from EY that can be focused on how to access new markets. EY will leverage their global network of 700 locations in over 150 countries to support participating startups. If enterprises wish to enter emerging/developing high growth economies in Africa, Asia or Latin America, they will receive support from Grameen. If the enterprise is focused on young people or employment, Save the Children have committed to provide entrepreneurs with access to Save the Children’s global networks and office space. COVID-19 may impact the ability to realise some of these international connections.

The enterprises participating in the cohort will receive significant value, including:

• Weekly masterclasses, facilitated by experts with experience in scaling social businesses;
• Tailored advisory support from EY or Social Impact Hub’s Professional Impact Network;
• Monthly meetings with a Scaling Impact mentor; and
• Bookable monthly sessions with experienced entrepreneurs-in-residence through ‘coach desk’ function.

The total value of the program to each enterprise is approximately $70,000.

Scaling Impact targets startups that are social enterprises or purpose-driven businesses. We will be looking at enterprises that meet the following eligibility criteria:

• Your organisation is based in Australia
• Your organisation has a social or environmental mission (or both) at its core and that are aligned with the SDGs
• Your organisation has product-market fit and a proven business model that has generated at least $50,000 in revenue and can be scaled
• Your organisation is planning to take on equity and/or debt investment within the next 12 months

Scaling Impact will be open to impact entrepreneurs anywhere in Australia, including regional and remote locations. Scaling Impact targets startups that are social enterprises or purpose-driven businesses. By this, we mean businesses that have a social or environmental mission and are aligned with one or more of the SDGs. We are focused on those enterprises where the impact model is intrinsic (i.e. as the business scales, the impact also grows), and addressing disadvantage and/or employment. We are also looking for a proven business model or some traction in the market and an intention to grow and scale. We are focused on those ready to start preparing for impact investment. Given COVID-19, we are focused on enterprises with strong business models operating in resilient sectors.

If you have received grant funding or seed funding in the past and are working towards impact investment readiness and seeking larger scale investment funding, you are still eligible to apply.

We welcome applications from any enterprises that are socially or environmentally focused and have a well proven business model, or some traction in the market, irrespective of whether you have already participated in an accelerator.

Given the current environment, we expect to deliver most or all elements of the program online, so there is no need to be located in Sydney.

You can find the eligibility criterial in the application form. Applications are now open and will be accepted on a rolling basis up until the 1 March 2022.

Applicants will be asked to fill in a short Expression of Interest form online. Once you have submitted your EOI, we will review and invite you to apply if you meet the eligibility criteria. We may give you a call to clarify certain details from your Expression of Interest form. Once you are invited to apply, you will receive an application form to fill out which will cover your business model, impact model, finances and proposed scaling pathway. We will conduct interviews before the final selection of 6 - 12 enterprises.

We do not accept late applications unless there are extraordinary circumstances.

We will select enterprises with proven business models with the intention to grow and scale including internationally, preferably operating in the fields of disadvantage and/or employment.

Applications can be resubmitted online at any point up to the application end date of 7 March 2022. After that date, you are welcome to email us at scalingimpact@socialimpacthub.org.

We will be in touch with all applicants by 15 April.

Yes, we are happy to provide verbal feedback to you if you are unsuccessful.

Yes, applicants are welcome to reapply in the 2023 program if they are unsuccessful in 2022.

Scaling Impact offers a menu of activities, delivered over a 5-month period. These do not require a full-time commitment. In the program, entrepreneurs are not passive recipients of content, rather active participants so it is expected that they will action learnings throughout the duration of the program in a model of iterative project-based learning and this will require a significant commitment of 3-4 hours/week in formal sessions as well as additional time spent working on actionable deliverables each week to build the enterprise's impact investment readiness throughout the 5 months.

Where possible and beneficial to the progress of the enterprise, team members will be welcome to participate. Each enterprise will be asked to select one founder to receive one-on-one mentoring before the start of the program.

We do not commit to invest directly into our participating enterprises. We retain a right to invest on the same terms as other investors for three years post completion of the program.

There is no upfront cost to our selected cohort to participate in the Scaling Impact accelerator program. However, if investors choose to invest in your enterprise, we require a fee to help cover the costs to offer the program to future cohorts. Also, some of our Scaling Impact masterclasses will be offered to members of the public at a cost. If investors choose to invest in your enterprise at any time 24 months after the start of the program, there will be a success fee charged on the capital raise of $25,000 (+GST) or 2.5% of the total subscription amount in relation to the capital raise (which includes debt, equity and hybrid amounts).