Zinc builds new commercial tech companies that tackle the biggest social challenges in the developed world. We do this through a 9-month full-time programme for 50 creative entrepreneurial individuals (we call them ‘Founders’), who come together at Zinc to find their Co-Founders and build their new businesses from scratch.
Excited by technology, they are driven by the desire to use their skills, experience and energy to have a personal impact on the social issues that really matter to them. With Zinc’s help, the Founders create scalable products and services that target millions of customers, based on the best social science research, exponential technologies and creative design.
Each programme has a single mission. The first mission, which we started in October 2017 in London, was to improve the mental and emotional health of 650m women and girls in the developed world.
People often ask us what success would look like for a Zinc business. Well, 50 years ago, a group of social scientists, creative artists and business people focused on the mission of “mastering the addictive power of TV to do some good in the world”. The result was Sesame Street, the most-watched kids’ TV show ever across 140 countries, having more educational impact on poor minority children than expensive and scarce pre-schools, generating the $1billion Muppet franchise and still going strong. That’s the scale of social, commercial and lasting impact we aspire for in the businesses that come out of Zinc.
We are very proud of the calibre of Founders on the first mission, with an equal balance of men and women, who came together from 19 different countries and combined their tech, business, creative and specialist skills to set-up 17 new businesses. You can see their businesses on the Mission 1 page.
We are excited to now announce that our second mission is "To unlock new opportunities for people in places that have been hard-hit by globalisation and automation". The new programme will start in London on 1st October, 2018. The application consists of three steps: an initial CV and short statement submission, followed by a Video interview and then a face-to-face discussion. Apply here.
Read more: https://www.zinc.vc/mission-2/