The NESsT South America Accelerator Program, with a focus on Brazil, Colombia, Chile, and Peru, provides social enterprises and socially impactful enterprises companies with patient capital and tailored business support services. 

These companies are tackling some of South America’s most pressing issues, from poverty and social exclusion to climate change and environmental degradation. And their impact doesn’t stop there. They also hire people from underserved communities in dignified jobs, including women, small-holder farmers, people from Indigenous communities, people with disabilities, the LGBTQIA+ community, and provide stable income opportunities to small-scale suppliers and producers. Despite this, these companies often face recurring barriers in accessing the funding and meaningful business assistance they need to grow their businesses and scale their social and environmental impact. 

The accelerator program runs for up to three years and is tailored to address the specific needs of social entrepreneurs, including balancing purpose and profit. The program is delivered by NESsT and includes mentoring from corporate mentors at Cisco, IKEA, MetLife Chile, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), and other program peers. 


“The ecosystem NESsT has built is invaluable – it makes us feel part of a community that supports one another. It gives us the energy to keep moving forward.”

Arnau Godet, CEO and Co-Founder of Novatio – a social enterprise that brings clean energy solutions to the remote farming communities in Colombia.


Program benefits

  • Recoverable grants to finance business growth activities, investment, and working capital*,  

    *Smaller non-recoverable grants may be offered for strongly justified purposes as additional funding.

  • Enterprises work one-on-one with selected mentors from the NESsT, IKEA, and other partner teams to effectively address their identified needs. 

  •  Enterprises receive support to network with other program participants, sharing and gaining valuable insights from peers through both online and in-person meetings. Enterprises may also have the chance to attend sector-building events and other events delivered by NESsT and its ecosystem partners. 

  • Entrepreneurs participate in training sessions covering strategic areas such as sales, marketing, brand building, social impact, diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), environmental indicators, and financial management. 

  • Enterprises gain access to other impactful organizations in the NESsT portfolio throughout Central and Eastern Europe and South America, leveraging business tools to tackle some of the most pressing social and environmental challenges of our time.

  • Enterprises advance their impact journey by working with the NESsT team to establish systems for measuring social and environmental impact.

  • Companies can share their impact, employee stories, milestones, and lessons learned through local media coverage, NESsT’s social media channels, videos, and events. 


About the Accelerator Program

Colombian enterprise SiembraCo joined the NESsT South America Accelerator Program in 2025 to reach an additional 1,000 smallholder farmers through its online farm-to-fork marketplace.

NESsT launched the first South America Accelerator program in 2020 in partnership with IKEA Social Entrepreneurship, investing in 17 social enterprises and sustaining 1,500 jobs for excluded individuals across the region. 

Building on the impact and learnings of the first program, NESsT and IKEA Social Entrepreneurship launched a new iteration of the program in 2023 with the goal of supporting 28 social enterprises to create and maintain 2,500 formal, decent jobs and conserve the planet. 

Today, the NESsT South America Accelerator Program is backed by Cisco Foundation, IKEA Social Entrepreneurship, MetLife Chile, and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency to address regional inequality and environmental challenges in South America.

Social enterprise PesCo joined the NESsT South America Accelerator Program in 2021 to strengthen its support to artisanal fishers on the Peruvian coast.

 

Meet the Portfolio


“What I most value about NESsT's partnership with Sweden is that we can work together to reach people making real changes in their communities and protecting the environment [...]”

Nataly Bernal, Program Officer for Regional Cooperation in Latin America and the Caribbean, Sida


 

Interested in joining us?

We’re always interested in hearing from enterprises creating dignified jobs across South America.

Apply to be part of our portfolio below.


Meet the NESsT Acceleration Team

MANAGEMENT

BRAZIL

CHILE

COLOMBIA

PERU


Recent program news