BrazilOliver Wyman partners with Ashoka for inclusion fund in the Nordics
Oliver Wyman has forged a partnership with entrepreneurial network Ashoka, in order to strengthen the new inclusion fund Hello Nordics. The new accelerator programme is focused on scaling proven solutions around social and financial inclusion/integration across the Nordic region.
Established in 1980, Ashoka is a global association that brings together leading social entrepreneurs. The network operates in 70 countries, championing new social change ideas and supporting the innovators behind them get started, grow, collaborate and reshape ecosystems.
The group has utilised multiple partnerships to extend its reach across the world. Previously, Ashoka worked with Accenture to launch a new joint job initiative in the US, and worked with PwC to realise a new office in the Netherlands. Now, autumn 2018 sees the group working with Oliver Wyman to allow ten social entrepreneurs – eight from Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden and two internationals – to kick off a large-scale inclusion effort across the Nordic region.
The Hello Nordics initiative sees the entrepreneurs each bring their own unique approach to fostering integration and inclusion, working to scale their solutions to better both social and financial inclusion of marginalised people in the Nordic region. The ten entrepreneurs have all been carefully selected based on their ability to address root causes in a systemic way, by involving policy makers, lawmakers, communities and target groups. The participants are Catalysts (NO), Sisters in Business (NO), Foreningen Nydansker (DK), GAME (DK), Startup Refugees (FI), Icehearts (FI), Mitt Liv (SE), Idrott Utan Gränser (SE), Welcoming International (USA/Germany) and ACAF/Winkomun (Spain).
The collaboration sees Oliver Wyman leverage its expertise in wealth management and as part of a global ambition to use its core capabilities to achieve wide-reaching social impact – Oliver Wyman’s Stockholm office designed the innovation fund that will enable the entrepreneurs to scale their initiatives. As part of a larger European integration effort, Hello Nordics has been taken to the Nordic region by Ashoka in partnership with Oliver Wyman, Nordea, Acando and Vinge, in a six-month accelerator supported by the partners to significantly scale up their activities, primarily by entering one or several Nordic countries outside their origin.
Sean Cory, Nordic Market Leader at Oliver Wyman and member of the Hello Nordics Advisory Board, commented; “Oliver Wyman has been active on a global as well as Nordic level in promoting inclusion. Developing a fund to support entrepreneurs scale up their already successful activities was an easy decision.”
Emma Lindgren, head of Ashoka in Sweden and part of the Nordic team, and a former consultant at Swedish sustainability consultancy 2050 and 180 Degrees Consulting (a student-run consultancy), added; “Ashoka’s ambition is to create positive systemic change in society. We know that these ten entrepreneurs can create a more inclusive Nordic region by bringing their concrete and proven solutions to scale.”
According to a recent analysis, the consulting industry of the Nordics is worth around €2.8 billion.
