Impact Deal is an acceleration program for startups, scale-ups, and SMEs dedicated to making a positive environmental and social impact. It supports growth through the use of datasets provided free of charge by private and public partners (Windtre, Sella Bank, Almawave, TIM, the City of Turin, etc.), which companies can leverage through specific applications (e.g., Artificial Intelligence). The Impact Deal application is open until December 2.
The program has the following objectives:

• Foster the growth of businesses with social and environmental goals by enhancing proprietary datasets (owned by specific companies and organizations);
• Promote collaboration models between public and private sectors or between large and small businesses for data sharing, useful for measurable social impact actions (e.g., to strengthen forecasting and response capabilities in health, environment, poverty reduction, etc.);
• Encourage commercial, operational, financial, or strategic collaborations, partnerships, and investments among participating companies, program partners, and the investor community;
• Promote regional development as a hub for creating value from data and data-driven technologies, such as Artificial Intelligence.

The partnership. Now in its third edition, Impact Deal is promoted and supported by the CRT Foundation in collaboration with:

• OGR Tech (the program’s venue, which also manages 14 other acceleration programs with Impact Deal);
• ISI Foundation (scientific partner, an excellence in data science);
• TOP-IX (operational partner, specializing in leveraging technology assets for social impact).

A central element of Impact Deal’s operations is the “Data Club“—a group of organizations that support the program by making proprietary datasets available and identifying collaborative opportunities with selected impact-driven companies.

Various “system partners”, including Torino Social Impact, also support Impact Deal by providing expertise, skills, technological resources, and networks in the fields of social entrepreneurship, business acceleration, technological innovation, digital solutions, and ICT.

How it works. Impact Deal offers an open call for European impact-focused companies with “data-driven” growth potential, meaning growth stimulated by the systematic and conscious use of datasets. Candidate companies are selected based on their potential in terms of economics, investment readiness, impact creation, and data utilization. Impact Deal then follows this format:

• Kick-off (January 15): Program launch, with the 30 selected companies and project partners present;
• Phase 1: The first part of the program provides training on data use for business development and on typical impact business acceleration topics. It includes dedicated online meetings with program organizers. The phase concludes with a Data Pitch where companies present their outlook and data utilization plans to Data Club members and other partners. After the Data Pitch, 12 companies are selected based on the alignment between available datasets and their intended applications;
• Phase 2: The selected group moves to a second phase that offers each company mentorship to deepen their access to and use of datasets. Impact investment opportunities are also explored further;
• Demo Day: At the end of the program, a presentation day is held where each company showcases its journey, outlook, and projects to potential investors.

Impact Deal aims to be the beginning of more structured collaborations (data-based and/or commercial, operational, financial, or strategic) between participating companies, project partners, and the broader entrepreneurial, financial, social enterprise, and impact investing sectors at local, national, and international levels.

For more information, please visit the website.