There are arguably many reasons for watching horror movies, but most people wouldn’t think saving energy could be one of them. That is, however, precisely what Kim Ng and his team based their idea at Junction 2022 on when solving the challenge by Aalto University and Aalto Ventures Program. The challenge was creating solutions to help European countries become independent of Russian energy by either saving energy or producing more locally.
Four Aalto University students visited Zambia to work on a case for a local startup, together with students from Zambia, Kenya, and Uganda. They started their voyage with high expectations, but none of them could anticipate the most important lessons they'd learn.
A year ago, Aalto Ventures Program was contemplating how to help students who want to develop their idea further and make an impact even after finishing their courses. They decided to hire a dedicated person — yours truly — to create an incubation program, and that was the start of Impact Studio. It's time to look back and reflect on what we've learned over the past year.
One of our team members, Aaro, took part in Ignite, a summer accelerator program at Aalto University aiming to make ideas into reality. The ten-week program is structured with weekly topics on entrepreneurship, from business validation to fundraising, but it's not just about accelerating startups. It’s truly a people accelerator.
Koor is a Somali word referring to a bell attached to a camel — the number one livestock in the country. If a farmer is missing a camel, they can find it by the warning of the bell. Likewise, Solve the SDGs winner, team Koor, hopes their solution could give a warning to farmers in the Horn of Africa about incoming droughts.
S.U.R. is a decolonizing collective based on the understanding of the Global South not just as geography but as a way of standing, experiencing, and dancing through the world. Amy Gelera, one of the founding members, shares the story of how entrepreneurship, underrepresentation, and pasta created a movement.