Press release
Press release Download PDFWe’re accelerating social enterprises via the official launch of fight for access accelerator
At Reckitt, we believe access to basic health care is a fundamental right, not a privilege. However, even today, 1 in 2 people lack access to basic healthcare. That's why today at One Young World, the world’s biggest and most impactful youth leadership Summit, we’re excited to announce the official launch of the Fight for Access (FFA) Accelerator, a programme to support and scale early-stage social enterprises across the world that improve access to healthcare.
The project, launched in partnership with Yunus Social Business and the Health Innovation and Investment Exchange (HIEx), aims to help accelerate and scale social enterprises across at least 7 countries, to improve healthcare for 1.5m people in year 1 alone.
Alongside seed funding, the Fight For Access Accelerator will support the chosen entrepreneurs with bootcamps, mentorship and access to a global ecosystem of fellow health experts and innovators, to help them reach their full potential and make a sustainable impact where it’s needed most.
Alongside this, we’re also announcing a continued commitment to catalyse our people and support them to become ‘intrapreneurs’, giving employees the opportunity to play a central role in our fight by working side-by-side with social business leaders as well as bringing their own ideas to bear.
A focus on woman innovators
As part of the collaboration, Reckitt and Health Innovation and Investment Exchange have developed the Women in Innovation Fund (WiNFUND), which will use NFTs (one-of-a-kind digital artworks) to support women-led, health innovation start-ups to help democratise access to healthcare. Women-led enterprises are proven to have greater impact but receive only 2% of venture capital funding.
Women are the backbone of healthcare systems. If the world is to reach universal health coverage, it will be women entrepreneurs who will drive it. It is unacceptable that women entrepreneurs don’t get a fair share of access to financing – the Winfund is an attempt to address the inequities and build a community of NFT owners to back women health entrepreneurs.
Proudly supporting Lead2030
The launch of the FFA Accelerator is a continuation of Reckitt’s previous work in several areas to invest in social enterprises and champion entrepreneurship.
It builds on the success of Reckitt’s sponsorship of Lead2030 for the past three years. Through Lead2030, we have invested in youth-led social enterprises around the world and connected them with experts at Reckitt, to provide executive mentorship and enable them to grow and scale.
Our support of Lead2030 continues this year, with the sponsorship of businesses including Eco-Soap Bank, which is set up to save, sanitize and supply recycled soap for the developing world, and Natal Cares, which combines mobile technology, machine learning and low-cost innovation to combat maternal and infant mortality in Nigeria.
The fight for access accelerator is investment, not donation, using the most modern tools available. We have evolved how we finance development projects, bringing them into the 21st century and setting them up to create long-term, sustainable impact. We are proud that all proceeds from Reckitt’s first NFT project will go toward women-led health start-ups in Africa, where there is great inequality in access to both healthcare and funding.