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"I think this is when it hit me there must be a lot more ideas, innovation, and startups out there that could actually make a difference and could be transforming the way we're looking at the world, but they never have a chance.” - Bernhard Kowatsch
Great ideas are only the beginning. Without the right conditions and opportunities for success, many innovative and potentially game-changing ideas never may never come to fruition. That’s what Bernhard and his team at the World Food Programme Innovation Accelerator work to avoid.
His time at the World Food Programme began as the Head of Business Innovation, and after stepping away to build his start-up Share The Meal, he returned to the WFP to build and serve as the Head of Innovation Accelerator, the world’s biggest social impact startup accelerator. With a background in business consulting at BCG and successful leadership of Share The Meal, Bernhard Kowatsch leverages his extensive experience to support innovative ideas across the globe with the focus of ending world hunger.
In this episode, Bernhard will impart valuable insights on establishing a robust startup foundation, seamlessly integrating innovation into established organizations, and crafting compelling messages to secure funding and support.
Contents
1 - BCG, WFP, and Share The Meal
2 - Building a foundation for success: Advice rapid fire
3 - How to market innovations and earn funding
4 - The WFP Innovation Accelerator’s impact
Head of Innovation Accelerator
Bernhard Kowatsch leads the global United Nations (UN) World Food Programme (WFP) Innovation Accelerator, which he created in 2015. He has 18 years of deep experience in building and investing in innovation and technology solutions for global companies, UN organizations and startups.
Under Bernhard’s leadership, the Innovation Accelerator has become the world’s biggest social impact startup accelerator, offering 20 annual programmes to the broader ecosystem on multiple social impact and sustainability issues, such as hunger, climate change, primary healthcare, gender equality, and emergency response.
In 2023 alone, the portfolio of startups and innovations impacted 61 million people globally, with a 2X growth rate every year since launch, raising $295 million in grants for innovations. In addition, the WFP Innovation Accelerator raised 104$M for accelerator programmes including grants to startups and innovations. He also created the global leading fundraising app, ShareTheMeal, which has raised more than $130M and was named as Best App of 2020 by Apple and Google. Prior to that, he advised global technology and industrial goods companies on new business creation, new product development and marketing at the Boston Consulting Group.
Bernhard is a social impact innovation and tech thought leader recognized on global stages, including his TED talk ‘The mindset shift needed to tackle big global challenges’, and regular speaker at conferences like the World Economic Forum, SXSW, XPRIZE and COP.
