Resources and Financial Help for SMEs Affected by COVID-19
Published: 21 April 2020
COVID-19 is affecting all of us around the globe, but economic and financial support is especially needed in emerging and developing economies. Here you will find a list of funding resources available for SMEs across the world suffering economic disruption due to the pandemic. Read more
When a Crisis Presents an Opportunity for Innovation
Published: 20 April 2020 Linde Wolters
Flexibility and resilience are essential when it comes to adversity. “There are always opportunities,” says Gabriel Okello, the enterprise’s business development manager. “A crisis presents opportunities for innovation. Whether it is “mobile money solutions, combining deliveries or tracking and data-driven solutions.” Read more
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Fang Thai’s 5 Fundamental Factors to Help You Deal With Change
Published: 15 April 2020 Supapim Wannopas
Resilience is important to business, especially for those that are small in size or just starting out. Why? Because a small starter enterprise usually has built up fewer resources and network to withstand financial or other hardship for a long period of time. Yet, its strength is also in its size: its flexibility. This elasticity allows for a quick response, a shift in tactics and making changes easily. Here Jaruwan shares the five fundamental factors that allow her business to endure and adapt. Read more
An Inspiring Perspective on COVID-19 From Fang Thai’s CEO
Published: 15 April 2020 Supapim Wannopas
January 13 marked the first reported coronavirus case outside of China – it was reported in Thailand. A little more than 2 weeks later – on January 30, WHO declared COVID-19 a global public health emergency. This emergency doesn’t only pose a threat to individual health but, inevitably, also affects our healthy enterprises.
SEED had a chance to catch up with our 2019 SEED Awards winner from Thailand, Fang Thai Factory, on how they are doing and dealing with the epidemic. There are some key points we feel could benefit and/or inspire peers who face a similar struggle. Read more
SEED had a chance to catch up with our 2019 SEED Awards winner from Thailand, Fang Thai Factory, on how they are doing and dealing with the epidemic. There are some key points we feel could benefit and/or inspire peers who face a similar struggle. Read more
BDS+ Special Focus India: Three reasons to join a Training of Trainers in India
Published: 10 April 2020 Lina Gutierrez, Linde Wolters
SEED is looking forward to bringing Training of Trainers (ToTs) workshops for Business Development Service (BDS) providers also to non-metro cities in India. SEED trains BDS providers on toolified and collaborative approaches that help early stage eco-inclusive enterprises have more impact. Read more
Digital Innovations by Eco-Inclusive Enterprises: In the Waste Sector
Published: 08 April 2020 Khawla Rammali, Sonya Ong
The improvement of waste management systems across the world is vital to reduce environmental degradation, but only 9% of the world’s plastic waste was recycled by 2015. But digital solutions can support changes in consumer behaviour and increase the education of residents on proper waste sorting techniques and the availability of door-to-door collection. Read more
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How to improve your enterprise immunity to COVID-19? Some food for thought from SEED Indonesia Winner 2019 Mycotech
Published: 07 April 2020 Linde Wolters, Supapim Wannopas
The term “survival of the fittest” suggests that organisms best adjusted to their environment are the most successful in surviving, it seems this also applies to business in tough times.
Adaptiveness is certainly a quality that Adi Reza Nugroho, the CEO of Mycotech, an enterprise producing leather and leather products from mushrooms, has in spades. Resilient to changes, positive but not too optimistic, he hopes for the best but prepares for the worst. Here he shares his coping strategies dealing with the COVID situation. Read more
Adaptiveness is certainly a quality that Adi Reza Nugroho, the CEO of Mycotech, an enterprise producing leather and leather products from mushrooms, has in spades. Resilient to changes, positive but not too optimistic, he hopes for the best but prepares for the worst. Here he shares his coping strategies dealing with the COVID situation. Read more
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BDS+ Special Focus Zambia: Three reasons to join a Training of Trainers in Zambia
Published: 07 April 2020 Lina Gutierrez, Linde Wolters
Through the Training of Trainers (ToT), SEED is helping Business Development Services (BDS) advisors and enterprises harness opportunities that arise from climate change. Read more
Digital Innovation for Eco-Inclusive Enterprises
Published: 30 March 2020 Khawla Rammali, Linde Wolters, Sonya Ong
Digital innovation is a great way to accelerate social, environmental and economic transformation, for enterprises to tackle challenges such as climate change, food security, gender equality, and scale-up solutions more quickly through technology. Read more
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Digital Innovations by Eco-Inclusive Enterprises: In the Agriculture Sector
Published: 30 March 2020 Khawla Rammali, Sonya Ong
Digital innovations can bring significant benefits to stakeholders in the agriculture sector. Take rural farmers who face challenges including a lack of access to information on markets, need advice on productivity gains, and struggle with obtaining credit and low levels of financial inclusion. Read more
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Malawian Enterprises share their Fundraising Tips for Small Enterprises
Published: 27 March 2020 Alina Weiss, Sonya Ong
Seven of our SEED Malawi eco-inclusive enterprises – Chonona, Green Impact Technologies, Green Ventures, Honey Products, Hortinet, InteWaste and Ziweto – were recently able to raise significant funds that will help them to scale-up and achieve their full impact potential. We asked them to share their fundraising journey and learnings with you. Read more
BDS+ Special Focus Uganda: Three reasons to join a Training of Trainers in Uganda
Published: 10 March 2020 Lina Gutierrez, Linde Wolters
SEED brings BDS advisors together to share experiences and increase mutual collaboration, allowing for the ecosystem and practitioner community to grow and mature. Read on to find out more about the opportunities SEED ToTs bring to BDS providers, and why we think our tools and training are a good fit for that market. Read more
Bringing SME voices into policy solution development through our Practitioner Labs for Policy Prototyping
Published: 16 December 2019 Camilla Shearman
In late October, seven policy practitioners took to the stage during the SEED Practitioner Labs for Policy Prototyping scale-up labs in South Africa and Malawi. The practitioners shared their ideas of policy solutions to leverage the potential of eco-inclusive enterprises in driving the transition to green and inclusive economies. Read more
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Extending Business Development Services Beyond Metro Cities - Training the Trainers
Published: 01 November 2019 Amar Munnolimath, Camilla Shearman
SEED’s two-pronged approach to supporting enterprises through direct support and ecosystem building activities is founded on the belief that enterprises rely on both internal and external success factors to grow their solutions. Read more
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BDS+ Special Focus 5: Business Development Services+, not just for business people. Who else could benefit?
Published: 11 October 2019 Linde Wolters, Sonya Ong
Often when we think about business development services, we think about consultants who help businesses grow and scale. We asked some of our past BDS ToT participants which other actors would benefit from BDS ToT and here is what they suggested. Read more
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BDS+ Special Focus 4: Networking & Partnerships - Possibilities at the SEED BDS+ ToTs
Published: 04 October 2019 Linde Wolters, Sonya Ong
At SEED ToTs, participants – BDS consultants, incubators and accelerators – enjoy peer-learning and have the opportunity to network and build partnerships. When we asked several BDS ToT participants what their main takeaways were from the workshops, many mentioned the networking possibilities and new partnerships formed. Read more
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BDS+ Special Focus 3: BDS Providers & Challenges in the eco-system
Published: 27 September 2019 Linde Wolters, Sonya Ong
BDS providers provide crucial help eco-inclusive, micro, small, and medium enterprises to overcome day to day challenges around fundraising, direction or finding talent. Are you a BDS provider? Read on to find out if you share similar challenges with others. Read more
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BDS+ Special Focus 2: Experiences & Takeaways from BDS+ ToT workshops
Published: 20 September 2019 Linde Wolters, Sonya Ong
We caught up with a number of BDS providers from Ghana to Indonesia to see how BDS providers experienced the training. What were their biggest takeaways? Read more
Building healthier communities with Khainza Energy
Published: 18 September 2019 Linde Wolters, Sonya Ong
“Khainza” is a reference to a small person with high energy and ability. It is also Arthur Woniala, the founder's, mother’s maiden name. Khainza Energy is committed to providing clean, safe, and affordable cooking fuel solutions to Ugandans. We caught up with Arthur to hear how SEED Support has helped change his business & what Khainza is up to these days. Read more
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BDS+ Special Focus 1: SEED Tools & Enterprises’ Triple Bottom Line
Published: 13 September 2019 Linde Wolters
Are you a business coach or do you work for an incubator or business support organisation in Asia or Africa? Here are three reasons to focus on the social and environmental impact of the start-ups you work with. Read more
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BDS+ Training of Trainers: Special Focus
Published: 11 September 2019 Linde Wolters, Sonya Ong
BDS providers offer valuable support for SMEs, often behind the scenes. In this five-part special focus blog series, we caught up with a number of BDS providers from Ghana, Indonesia, India, Thailand, and Uganda. Read more
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Lighting up rural South Africa with SolarTurtle
Published: 21 June 2019 Linde Wolters, Sonya Ong
Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer, James Van der Walt tell us how being on a ferry in Ireland and a monastery in New Zealand inspired the founding of his eco-inclusive business idea. These days, they’re busy with SANEDI working on developing Baby Turtles which would be smaller, cheaper versions of their original prototype. Read more
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From waste to wealth: the story of alternative fuel enterprise BioAfriq
Published: 20 June 2019 Linde Wolters, Sonya Ong
We caught up with BioAfriq founders and SEED Starter alumni Doreen Achieng Ochieng-Ivisu and James Nyamai, the husband and wife who recently were selected to join the Kenya Acceleration Programme 2019 by CIC Kenya. Their story started when they realised the damage charcoal was doing to their country, where tree cover is at only 3%. In this catch-up, they talk about separating their private from their business life, the difficulty of changing farmer mindsets and why BioAfriq is here to stay. Read more
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Designing policy instruments to benefit green and social enterprises in Southern Africa
Published: 07 June 2019 Camilla Shearman
Last month we launched our SEED Policy Prototyping Programme, a series of Policy Labs in South Africa and Malawi. Bringing together policymakers and enterprise support organisations, we explored the policy challenges facing local social & green enterprises. Using hands-on SEED 'prototyping' tools, we then develop the first concrete solutions to these challenges. Read more
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Climate-smart innovation and how to adopt a polar bear
Published: 21 December 2018 Kathrin Kirsch
Florian Rehm, participant from our Practitioner Lab Climate Finance in Thailand, developed the cutting-edge prototype for Last of Ours that merges digital innovation based on the blockchain, social entertainment and real-world impact for our planet’s endangered species and natural zones. Read more
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