WHAT IS FAROL?
FAROL was designed to unite and support projects in the fight against modern slavery, through collaborative innovation.
The first accelerator of its kind.
Meaning “lighthouse” in Portuguese and Spanish, the program comes to shed light on a serious, deep and hidden global human rights issue and in turn contribute to rehabilitating the 40 million people who are currently enslaved.
Startups, grassroots organisations and projects will be invited to work alongside world class mentors and advisors to accelerate their goals.
Benito Pajares
THE PROGRAM
FAROL is a six-month acceleration program that supports startups and grassroots initiatives working on technologies designed to reduce labour abuse and modern slavery within supply chains.
An opportunity to access a rich mentorship program and world class acceleration services in order to develop innovative solutions to tackle a complex human rights issue; build a network of innovators in this field, connect and learn from exceptional mentors, experts, speakers and other participating projects.
2021/22 applications are now closed
We proudly welcome 18 qualifying participants to the first edition of FAROL, joining us globally from Canada, Chile, India, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan Portugal, Spain, the UK and the US.
WHO WE ARE LOOKING FOR
We’re looking for startups and organisations on different stages of development, this is why we have divided the Startup Track into 2 sub-tracks:
Sub-track 1:
- Young purpose-driven tech startups that are beyond the idea stage, but have no product launched or only in an early version and that are looking to target modern slavery challenges (pre-seed).
- New projects within NGOs fighting modern slavery with an allocated tech-savvy team.
Sub-track 2:
- Startups with a functioning product and existent clients, aiming to add fighting modern slavery to their goals (seed/Series A)
- NGOs fighting Modern Slavery that want to adapt their positioning and growth strategy in order to get more clients and supporters to become sustainable or increase their financial sustainability.
HOW IT WORKS
The program is structured in 3 tracks: Startup track, Impact, Legal and Support track and Modern Slavery track.
1. The Startup track is strictly focused on topics related to startup creation and growth, from validation techniques to product development and business models (sub-track 1), the program also focuses on Elements of Value, Go-to-market strategies, and Pilot canvas & metrics (sub-track 2).
2. The Impact, legal & support track is oriented on empowering participants with knowledge and skills in the areas of legal, project management and impact measuring and reporting, as well as governance in communication with clients and authorities. During the Bootcamp we’ll focus on implementing the theory of change in practice.
3. The Modern slavery track is all about sharing experiences and inspiration. We invited specialists to host special Spotlight sessions where we will address the various challenges faced to identify, reduce and mitigate slavery within supply chains.
TIMELINE
Open Applications: 14 June 2021 – 31 August 2021
The program accepts applications through F6s from worldwide startups and NGOs aiming at fighting modern slavery. All finalized applications will be carefully evaluated. The program is designed to accelerate up to 15 startups or NGOs.
Selection: 14 September 2021
Results will be announced on September 14th.
Acceleration Journey: 6 Oct 2021- 31 Mar 2022
Farol is a 6-month journey filled with workshops, talks, mentoring and sharing moments. Depending on your track, you’ll get access to 6-8 mentoring slots and 2 to 5-day Bootcamps each month.
Demo Day: 5 Apr 2022
A day designed to show results.
This is where all participant startups from both tracks will show the work developed so far.
BENEFITS OF FAROL
As well as having a impact on tackling one of the greatest human rights challenges of our times, by taking part in FAROL, participants will be be supported with:
Mentoring and business coaching with 50+ specialised experts that will help structure and build solutions.
Workshops in topics such as problem validation, prototypes and products, go-to-market strategies, business models and more.
Talks shared by the most relevant startup founders and specialists in modern slavery.
Consulting support from experts working in varying areas that intersect with modern slavery, social enterprises, marketing, sales, etc.
Financing consultants specialising in financing strategy will be allocated for each project.
Reuters/Castro-Mendivil
A venture by
Financially Supported by
The FAROL project is proudly supported by the Portuguese government through the Portugal Inovação Social initiative with EU funding. Portugal Social Innovation is a public initiative that aims to promote social innovation and boost the social investment market in Portugal with support from the European Social Fund, under the Portugal 2020 Partnership Agreement.