2021 Social Impact Opportunities - Silke Horáková
Silke Horáková is the Co-Founder & Partner of Tilia Impact Ventures, the first social impact fund in the Czech Republic and the co-owner of Albatros Media, a.s., the largest Czech book publishing company. Silke is the founder and chairperson of the supervisory board of the Albatros foundation, which supports socially disadvantaged children in education and currently serves as a member of the ASN Global Advisory Group of Ashoka. She has been working with organisations like Ashoka, NESsT and the Social Impact Award on the promotion and development of social entrepreneurship and, as a speaker of Future Summit 2020 gave us some insights into what social impact investment and social entrepreneurship futures are.
What is social impact investment and how can you merge profit with purpose?
Impact investments combine the creation of scalable and/or deep impact and the generation of financial return (which can differ from zero to risk-adjusted market rates). The intention of the investor to magnify social or environmental impact through investments as well as the systematic measurement and management of impact alongside business progress are essential for this type of investment. Impact investors target a wide range of societal challenges and track increasingly their progress against the Sustainable Development Goals, adopted by the UN in 2015.
Impact investments are based on both traditional and new innovative (social) business models allowing the investor to achieve envisaged financial returns.
What are some examples of impact investment in CEE you see as relevant?
I would like to mention two examples from our portfolio. MIWA (https://www.miwa.eu) is a Czech social start up based on the principles of circular economy and in particular on reusable packaging. They offer a system of reusable dispensers circulating between producer and retailer and smart cups for consumers - allowing for customized, waste free shopping at the highest technological level. The company has not only innovated packaging free sale but has been successful in scaling its solution beyond the CEE region into Western Europe markets. Our (Tilia’s) seed investment was based on both an impact and a business strategy and the company has recently raised its next financing round.
Another, very different example is our investment in DotGlasses (https://dotglasses.org), a Prague based social venture, which tackles the problem of visual impairment of which more than a billion people are suffering. The company’s product is an adjustable one-size-fits all model of prescription glasses. A radical new business model allows the company to offer extremely cheap glasses and to target groups in developing countries which had no or limited access to glasses before. Tilia has been the lead investor alongside a Belgian impact investment fund and a group of social business angels from Western Europe. Despite the corona pandemic, DotGlasses have been able to build a sales organisation in 14 countries in Africa and Asia.
What are some of the opportunities you see for 2021 and beyond in social entrepreneurship?
I’m confident that renewing economies in a post-Corona world will offer a lot of chances for more sustainability and new partnerships, in which social innovations and social enterprises play a crucial role. Apart from this, I believe that societal challenges which we are facing not only in the Czech Republic and which constitute Tilia’s areas of investment, remain unchanged:
Sustainable environment based on ecosystem stability, sustainable economies (e.g. through circular economy) and responsible consumption.
Social inclusion and civic participation & transparency
Quality education and
Health & Wellbeing with focus on disadvantaged groups
There will be also more and more providers of capital for social entrepreneurs, both impact investors and, more generally, “investors with impact”- e.g. VCs, which go into impact investments because they see substantial upside for financial returns.