Every year, SOCAP grants scholarships to social entrepreneurs from all over the globe. This year marks the second virtual SOCAP Scholarship cohort in our program’s history. Due to COVID-19, entrepreneurs will be joining the conference, along with other attendees virtually. While meeting in-person is a very different experience than joining a conference virtually, we are working on innovative ways to support our entrepreneurs in their virtual experience to help them receive the most out of SOCAP. We will continue some of these new virtual support initiatives even once SOCAP returns to an in-person flagship event.

Some of the new initiatives we are implementing  for our virtual entrepreneur cohort include:

• Additional orientation webinars for the entrepreneurs to hear from expert guest speakers. Speakers will cover topics such as: choosing the right investor for their venture, thinking about digital storytelling for their venture and finding a variety of sources of capital (human, financial, etc) during SOCAP.
• Additional networking sessions to connect with their cohort peers throughout the months leading up to the SOCAP flagship event.
• More online resources for their orientation folder and video recordings to help them navigate our new virtual platform.
• More opportunities to present their ventures virtually to the SOCAP community through digital storytelling, presentations and conversations.
• Publication of an Investor LookBook, which provides relevant information about each entrepreneur’s venture to the SOCAP community.
• We continue to add tools and resources as we approach SOCAP to provide additional support.

Our Cohort This Year

We received a great response to our application for the SOCAP Entrepreneur Scholarship, of which we accepted a cohort of 50 entrepreneurs.  Additionally, for the first time as part of our scholarship program SOCAP, in partnership with MIT Solve, we welcome a cohort of their early-stage entrepreneurs from all over the globe.

This year’s cohort is a special mix of early-stage and start-up entrepreneurs looking for funding as well as other types of connections (such as corporate sponsorships, clients, etc). One of the concrete ways we at SOCAP help our scholarship entrepreneurs connect with potential funders and networks is by creating our Investor LookBook, which helps to sort the entrepreneurs by sector and provide relevant information about their venture and their “Ask” for the SOCAP community. Take a look at the 2021 Scholarship Entrepreneur Investor LookBook to see this and more information about each of the entrepreneurs in this year’s cohort.

We are excited to introduce you to this year’s entrepreneurs representing incredible solutions to pressing social, cultural, and environmental problems from across the globe! Please check out their information, websites, and if you’re interested in getting in touch with one of our entrepreneurs, let our Entrepreneur Coordinator know via email: [email protected].