The Venture is a movement launched by Chivas Regal to find and fund the most promising social entrepreneurs in their business startup. The Venture seeks not only brilliant business ideas but those with a mission to change the world for the better while at work, pairing both generosity and success and placing them as utmost important.

Annually, Chivas Regal comes up with USD$1 Million (~RM4 million) to be distributed among the winners of The Venture for funding global competition, rewarding the best start-up and non-profit businesses with the best ideas to change the world.

On the 8th of September 2016, The Venture made its way into Malaysian arms, and applications for the Local Competition are being accepted until 15th November 2016. A local winner will be chosen to proceed to the Global Competition. Here, they will take part in The Venture’s Accelerator Week programme at the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship at University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School with local winners from other countries, 30 in total. The new group of global finalists will then travel to the New York for The Venture Final Pitch in July 2017.

Last year, The Venture aided in the startup of five unique businesses that have changed the lives of thousands upon thousands. The largest of the sum which was USD327,523 (~RM1.3 million) was awarded to Algramo, to further develop the pioneering food distribution enterprise. Below are the finalists of the year 2015:

1. Algramo

On the outskirts of Santiago, Chile, everyday foods can be costly. Algramo means “by the gram,” and this business fills vending machines with bulk staples, installs them for free in small neighbourhood stores, and splits the profit evenly with shopkeepers.

2. Chipsafer

Livestock diseases can happen anytime. In 2001, Foot and Mouth Disease caused Uruguay economic losses of more than USD500,000,000. Chipsafer is a platform that can track and detect anomalies in livestock behaviour at any time and place with the aim of isolating the outbreak of such anomalies as soon as possible.
It is also useful to combat cattle rustling.

3. Sensprout

The SenSprout device was made to aid with the agricultural industry by monitoring soil conditions and environmental information in real time while increasing crop growth with minimal water usage. The device will indicate the moisture level of soil and leaves separately. The LED light changes accordingly.

4. Lumkani

Lumkani is a fire detector made to address and reduce the destruction caused by shack/slum fires in urban informal settlements in South Africa and across the globe.

5. Diseclar

Diseclar is a company that turns the world’s waste into furniture that looks and feels like solid wood, and their products are all resistant to moisture, rot, insects and UV rays.

Applying for The Venture, Malaysia

If you’d like to apply or if you know of a start-up social enterprise that you think should apply, it’s best to know the judging criteria for submissions into Phase 1 of The Venture, the local competition. These criteria are:

• Market opportunity and size
• Demonstrable impact: measurable social or environmental impact and a model that can scale
• Sound business model and organisational strategy
• Financial feasibility and sustainability: can earn revenue
• Skills, experience and commitment of management team

The competition is open to any non-profit legal entity (an “Entrant”).  The Entrant must be either at Discovery, Validation or Growth Stage. For further clarification on stages, please refer to the Terms & Conditions of The Venture. The application process for entrants in Malaysia ends 15th November 2016. To apply, click here.

You can follow The Venture on Twitter @theventure and Facebook at Chivas.My for updates on the Malaysian leg.