Baanko - Developing entrepreneurs and social impact businesses in Belo Horizonte/MG

Published on February 12, 2022

Baanko is an organization for impact development as a value for businesses, with innovation. It is based on the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) which are the global goals facilitated by the UN together with 193 countries. Develops and accelerates start-ups, social businesses and tools for all types and sizes of organizations, seeking to align the financial result with socioenvironmental impact as a development strategy. On the other hand, it serves major brands with a focus on management and impact strategies. Tools for management and impact measurement, business modeling and research.

Baanko executed 19 development programs with more than 400 impact & social businesses, of all stages, whether in ideation, validation, modeling, traction or expansion. With own methodologies and tools and a design thinking approach, proposes the construction of an innovative environment that links the business world with the legacy expected by impact entrepreneurs. Since 2014 he has worked in more than 22 cities in Latin America, such as Belo Horizonte, São Paulo, Valparaíso (Chile), Rio De Janeiro, Salvador, among others, and also in Portuguese-speaking countries such as Mozambique, Angola, Cabo Verde, Portugal and Guinea-Bissau. We believe in the network as a potential to connect a collaborative economy with collective intelligence, and we add innovation with impact to create the design of an ecosystem conducive to the development of business with more purpose.

Launched in 2014 from the perspective of the collaborative economy, this NETWORK has been growing and today it already has thousands of people involved and more than 300 projects supported/developed!

Baanko's belief is to promote in Latin America the increase of impact, the development of new market opportunities and impact investing for companies that generate positive impacts (social, environmental and economic).

The company promotes annually in Brazil, Argentina and Chile, a series of events called Baanko Challenge, where 17 projects are selected, based on 17 UN sustainable development goals - of which Baanko is a representative - and in three weeks the challenge is launched for those who want to develop a solution to the objectives. An impact report of the event is also published annually.

One of the examples of a project financed by the Institute's program was the organization of a cooperative of recyclable waste collectors in Pernambuco. A recyclable collector earns, on average, R$400 per month. Organizing the activity in a cooperative, he starts to earn R$1200, tripling his income.