Impact Seed was the culmination of a chance meeting between Co Founders Kylie Hansen and Sven Stenvers in 2012.
After a 15 year background in tech, telecommunications and clean energy startups, Sven exited his renewable energy venture in 2011, continuing to focus his passion for building impact-driven ventures. Kylie was then Chair and CEO of Cambodian/Australian social enterprise, Empowering Communities, having just returned to a Perth, and was concurrently working in roles across the WA NFP sector and completing her Graduate Certificate in Social Impact at UWA.
Over the next 2 years Sven and Kylie sought to further align their life and work with with their values, exploring the innovation landscape for investable WA social enterprises.
They found that in 2014, the WA startup, innovation and investment ecosystem which was overtly tech-centric and you were identified as “either a business, or a social enterprise, and not both”. Not satisfied with WA’s lack of support for social enterprise development, social innovation, and impact investment, Impact Seed was formed.
Today it is Western Australia’s peak capacity building organisation for impact investment, measurement and social enterprise development. Its work focuses on market development, growing participation and engagement with impact investment and social enterprise, and influencing policy.
Impact Seed has supported over 200 founders, not for profit, businesses, investor and government stakeholders, built an active government advocacy profile, along with a range of incubation, education and innovation programs, workshops and events.