Social Impact Meets Venture Clienting.
For companies that want to bring innovation and social impact together. In the Social Innovation Gateway, corporates test solutions with social impact in real operational use.
The program “Creating Lasting Impact – Support for Common-Good-Oriented Businesses” is funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy and the European Union through the European Social Fund Plus (ESF+).
Public institutions and companies trust ekipa as their impact venture clienting partner.
Impact is wanted. But it rarely leads anywhere.
Impact fails because of three structural problems that a single company can hardly solve on its own.
ESG pressure is rising.
CSRD, the EU taxonomy, and ESG ratings demand measurable initiatives. If you need real substance, you have to set up projects that show impact and hold up to an audit. A sustainability report alone won't deliver that.
Innovation budgets are getting tighter.
Impact initiatives often don't contribute directly to revenue. Without a structured process and external co-financing, they lose the internal fight for resources.
Collaboration with social startups stays a matter of chance.
If you search, you'll find plenty of providers — but rarely pre-qualified, rarely a genuine fit for your company, and rarely with the operational support that actually gets a partnership into implementation.
Impact venture clienting isn't delivered through a one-off CSR budget. It's a structured investment process.
Other CSR programs bring visibility. The Social Innovation Gateway brings pilot projects with social enterprises whose solutions match your impact fields. Publicly co-financed, deliverable through a structured process.
You get impact with substance. We take on the operational effort.
Auditable impact, matching solutions, and public co-financing.
Scouting, matching, operational support, and the funding administration.
Four phases.
One structured process.
From a concrete business problem to a contract-ready offer. ekipa manages every step operationally. Every phase delivers clear results for you as a corporate partner.
Challenge Setup
Together with ekipa, you identify concrete business problems and prioritize relevant impact fields. From this, we build challenges that specifically attract the right social enterprises.
Scouting & Matching
ekipa identifies and validates matching social startups with market-ready solutions, handles the initial outreach, and organizes targeted 1:1 matches.
Validate & Pilot
You work together with the companies on a proof of concept. ekipa provides hands-on support throughout the process and manages the collaboration.
Demo Day
Present results. Define next steps. ekipa supports the development of concrete proposals and the contract negotiation.
Frequently Asked Questions.
Still have questions? Book a 15-minute intro call — we'll answer them in the context of your impact fields.
Let's talk about your impact fields.
Fifteen minutes are enough to find out whether the Social Innovation Gateway fits your innovation agenda and what participation could look like.
