A Sustainable Social Enterprise.
An Innovative Impact Technology Venture.
What does it take to operate a sustainable business, secure funding for ambitious tech innovation, develop new impact-serving products and business models, and protect social mission?
A special blend of impact-focused revenue, financing and funding.
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Blue Mountains, Jamaica
Photo Credit:
Chiara Facciolà, at work in
Cimate & Parenting Collaboratories
A Sustainable Social Enterprise
IDEMS was founded as a traditional services business, securing contracts with academic, research, NGO and UN agency partners to develop innovative digital programmes to meet social impact goals.
In this applied context, we repeatedly encountered a structural gap: the digital technologies required to scale social impact responsibly didn’t exist.
Rather than accept this limitation, we got to work on impact-enabling technology R&D, building the novel innovation needed to support our partners in inclusively, affordably scaling evidence-based digital impact programmes. Our R&D has advanced in this applied implementation context, where we’ve validated, prototyped and piloted pioneering enabling innovation while delivering programmes in grant-funded collaboration with partners.
This model helped us achieve key innovation milestones, but grant structures are designed to fund programme delivery not deep technical innovation. As IDEMS R&D, and the path to productisation, matures, we now need new cash reserves and streams of funding to accelerate innovation, growth and impact.
Scaling Growth, Funding Innovation
IDEMS is committed to continuing the responsible development of pioneering innovation for social impact through applied multidisciplinary collaborations. This approach is a strategic differentiator, giving us insight into the systemic variability of real-world challenges, barriers and needs.
We are reaching an innovation and growth inflection point on two fronts:
- Scaling Collaboratory programming and partnerships. To continue to support and scale existing collaborations, we need stronger cash reserves to take on additional grant funding while sustaining proactive, strategic operations.
- Catalysing R&D to step into global opportunity. We require significant venture-style capital to continue to develop piloted technologies and to “impact commercialise” these into widely usable products and services.
Collaboratory-Generated Revenue
We are expanding our funding focus to support Collaboratory innovation, based on the growing evidence that IDEMS’ impact-enabling innovations can have transformative impact. We will continue to secure funding through partners as a grant subcontractor, and through direct innovation grants that recognise our key enabling role in delivering digital impact programmes globally.
Social Enterprise Impact Bonds
IDEMS’ grant-centred approach that enables global collaborations for applied R&D requires cash reserves. These reserves enable proactive, strategic business decision making and operations, independent of variable grant payment terms. IDEMS Social Enterprise Impact Bonds (SEIBs) serve this role, offering mission-aligned individuals a way to support social impact and secure a fair return.
Impact Funding & Philanthropy
Our groundbreaking, often deeply technical innovations now need significant funding to catalyse development, productisation, scaling and impact. Venture philanthropy, low-interest patient loans, and/or recoverable grants from family offices, innovative philanthropic consortia, and a handful of forward-looking foundations are essential for this ambitious, resource-intensive work.