found! Accelerator Program Announces the 2020 Finalists

The fourth round of found! has officially started! Deloitte Austria and Impact Hub Vienna selected the most innovative teams for their jointly organised social start-up program from numerous interesting submissions. The six ventures are now starting a 5-month incubation phase to work with experts on their business plans. Their unifying goal is to create opportunities for people with a refugee background.

In cooperation with the Impact Hub Vienna, the Deloitte Future Fund has been supporting socially oriented start-ups since 2016 through targeted workshops, mentorships and professional advice under the umbrella of found! program. This has already created numerous jobs and better job market opportunities for refugees in Austria. This year, too, as the next edition of found! is officially kicked off, the business models of all program participants are geared towards this purpose.

“Our finalists are committed to a common goal: to promote the successful integration of refugees in the domestic job market. The high relevance of this topic remains undiminished and we are proud to make a valuable contribution in this area, ” says Bernhard Gröhs, CEO of Deloitte Austria.

The six teams will again be accompanied by experts from Deloitte and the Impact Hub. As part of a 5-month incubation phase, intensive work is carried out to optimize the various business models. The two most promising start-ups will be selected by an expert jury at the end of the program and will receive further financial support as well as pro bono advice.

“We are happy that found! program is entering its fourth round and we look forward to working with very exciting participants again this year. We have a diverse cohort, a mixture of already established social businesses as well as promising projects in the idea development phase, ” explains Lena Gansterer, Managing Director of Impact Hub Vienna.

Meet the Six Winning Teams

frida offers free, independent legal counselling for refugees and migrants, combining the two areas of law. We believe everyone must be able to enforce their rights.

FoodStories is a kitchen hub where refugee women are employed as cooks and cooking instructors, cooking their traditional dishes for delivery and catering and running cooking classes for individuals and groups.

The Connection has been helping young migrants integrate and acquire language, school and social skills for 8 years.

The Vienna Hobby Lobby offers free leisure program for children and young people from a disadvantaged social background. For many families leisure courses are very expensive, so that they can’t afford them. We work with ambitious young people with migrant background to give these courses.

ÖkonoWie? is a young start-up from Styria. The team wants to assist refugees and migrants in understanding the basic business and economic knowledge necessary for the Austrian labor market, thus filling knowledge gaps as well as offering additional qualifications.

Ahl@n uses technology and utilizes the untapped capabilities of skilled refugees and migrants to provide affordable translation/interpretation services. This solution helps refugees and migrants overcome language barriers and contributes to their integration in the Austrian society.

This press release was originally posted in German on Deloitte Austria’s official website. View it here.

How to Keep up with found! Program Updates?

To follow the found! 2020 cohort’s journey, follow Impact Hub Vienna on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter or Instagram. Follow out Deloitte Austria’s channels on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram too for updates in German!

Photos © Lea Fabienne