Delivering positive impact through entrepreneurship
“We are using entrepreneurship as a superior tool to scale impactful businesses through strategic partnerships and product innovation.”

SDG Compass: Delivering positive social impact with the UN Sustainable Development Goals
We’ve launched an SDG Compass – a world-leading map of over 2,000 startups who are addressing the UN Sustainable Development Goals to help businesses do better for the planet.
We use early signals of innovation such as startup activity and VC funding. We then can combine these early signals of innovation with macro-industry forces, to gather a comprehensive view of the market.
What you will find in the Compass:
- Startups solving challenges across all 17 Sustainable Development Goals
- Funding being supplied by VCs
- Country activity within and across the goals
- Trends within each goal that present opportunities for organisations to pursue

Access the SDG Compass:
Webinar: SDG 11: Why building sustainable cities through collaboration is the future
In this panel talk we speak to Tina Main, SVP Products, Innovation and R&D at VELUX, Lasse Jonasson, Director & Futurist at Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies and Gorm Elikofer, Chief Customer Officer from HOFOR.
We discuss the future of making our cities more sustainable and liveable. Collaboration across industries plays a crucial role in cracking this problem, as cities are living organisms of multiple stakeholders. Only through their collaboration can they become more sustainable.
Key topics discussed in this Masterclass:
- What are the innovation imperatives in meeting the Sustainable Development Goals?
- Can fostering interdisciplinary collaboration help make our cities more liveable and more sustainable?
- Can you future-proof your business AND help shape the cities of the future?
Webinar: SDG 7: How can startups and corporates work together to achieve their net zero targets?
In this panel talk we speak to Annika Ramsköld, VP Sustainability at Vattenfall, Uli Huener, Chief Innovation Officer at EnBW and Jeppe Hjørngaard from Vestas Ventures.
We hear about their predictions for the future of a world where clean energy and sustainability is at the forefront, as well as hearing about their sustainability strategy and key learnings in how to truly make a difference in the next ten years, towards 2030.
Key topics discussed in this Masterclass:
- Why current innovation efforts is failing to meet the Sustainable Development Goals
- Business models and emerging technologies that are driving the change towards Affordable and Clean Energy
- Where do you start as a practitioner, and what does an effective sustainability strategy look like?
Webinar: SDG 12 – Why your business needs a circularity action plan
This webinar is the 2nd in the series of SDG focused webinars. This time we were joined by Head of Sustainability & CSR at Danish fashion brand GANNI, and Founder and CEO for Circular IQ, Roy Vercoulen.
Key topics discussed in this webinar:
- Insights and learnings from the SDG Compass with a focus on SDG 12
- Why current innovation efforts are failing to meet the Sustainable Development Goals
- Business models, value drivers and technologies driving circular innovation
- How can large organisation accelerate their innovation within the circular value chain
- Why industries must work together horizontally and vertically to transition to the circular economy
Webinar: Mapping the world’s SDG startups, and why innovation is a driver for sustainability
The UN Sustainable Development Goals represent both an obligation and an opportunity. Not only does pursuing these goals make sense for society and the planet, but sustainability is estimated to be worth hundreds of billions in untapped opportunities.
Key topics discussed in this Masterclass:
- Has the COVID-19 crisis opened a window of opportunity for the Sustainability agenda?
- Not every SDG goal makes sense to pursue for every company. Where are the ‘white spaces’ of opportunities and where is there sufficient innovation density to promote partnerships?
- Introduction to Rainmaking’s SDG Compass – mapping the emerging solutions to the world’s largest challenges
- Why innovation will drive sustainability
How to Move the Needle with Purpose-Driven Innovation
Delivering impact is a strategic direction that requires rethinking the way we do business. Still, over 80% of the top 200 corporates focus mostly on CSR and business-as-usual innovation.
What you will find in this guide:
- 5 corporate drivers for doing impact innovation
- Why startups are key for corporations to balance financial and social impact
- Innovation programs supporting impact entrepreneurs and funding opportunities
- How IKEA, Danske Bank and Cargill are tackling impact challenges together with startups

Access the guide below:
How we work with you
We partner with organisations to bring new strategies and market-based solutions to pressing social and environmental challenges.
- Navigate uncertainty in fast-evolving markets to map the future of businessDelivering impact is a strategic direction that requires rethinking the way we do business. We analyse diverse data sets and trends to locate large organisations within fast-evolving markets to integrate sustainability in their business strategy.
- Collaborate to address critical sustainability issuesOur programs facilitate a strong engagement between sustainability startups and corporations who need to achieve their innovation and sustainability targets. We have developed multiple solutions that address today’s most important environmental challenges and have a bottom-line business impact.
- Engage your internal innovators to create a sustainable businessWe help players across industries think and act more like startups, to create and accelerate innovation internally. Our programs leverage methodologies used by best-in-class startups, to help companies meet their sustainability targets by empowering their innovation teams to approach innovation with new mindsets.
- Build sustainable ventures for a better futureWe partner with today’s most influential companies to build and scale tomorrow’s most exciting digital ventures to create competitive financial returns and sustainability value. We have successfully launched over 30 ventures combining the deep industry knowledge of our partners with the entrepreneurial execution of startups.

Beyond helping our clients make a positive difference, we are determined to do our part as best we can.
We are driving major initiatives on a broad spectrum of social impact issues, closely aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals—from generating new ideas for sustainable solutions to forging a path to education reform for more than 2 million students in India.
We are also a proud participant of the UN Global Compact, the world’s leading voluntary corporate citizenship initiative.
Some of our partners
Meet our Team
We’re a diverse, international team, drawn from a range of backgrounds and professional disciplines. We bring a wide range of skills and interests to the work, and we share a love of seeing others develop and grow; both personally, and professionally.