About Us
At Acacia Impact Innovation, we help social impact innovators and funders be more successful, and we develop social innovations ourselves in collaboration with others. We do this through advisory/consultancy as well as hands-on services, such as ideation, business strategy, public-private partnerships, fundraising and business planning. Our main focus is on climate action and on inclusive and humanitarian innovation. We focus on the ‘exploration’ and ‘transition-to-scale’ phases of the innovation process.
Our customers are:
• Social innovation practitioners (e.g. corporations, startup companies, social enterprises, NGOs, universities, and governments)
• Social innovation investors (e.g. government development agencies, private foundations, individuals)
Dr. Maarten van Herpen
Owner & executive director
As the former founder of Philips Africa Innovation Hub, I served as the unit’s director for five years, working with a team of corporate social intrapreneurs on inclusive health innovation (explored 35 innovations of which 5 transitioned-to-scale). In 2018 I founded Acacia Impact Innovation to continue my career as scientist, innovation consultant and social entrepreneur to help social impact innovators & funders be more successful, especially in the field of inclusive and humanitarian innovation and on innovations to address climate challenges. I am supporting a number of social enterprises including Inuka Coaching (a start-up in mental health) and Luper Technologies (a startup in air pollution control).
In recent years I have made important scientific contributions to the field of atmospheric methane removal technologies, highlighted by my critical role in the ISAMO consortium, and first authorship of a PNAS paper about methane removal by mineral dust mixed with sea spray over the North Atlantic.
Throughout my career, I combined my technical and business background and I have extensive experience in public-private collaboration. I am known for my many innovative ideas and entrepreneurial mindset, that resulted in a large number of patents (>100 granted patents) and new business models. I served on the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council for Social Innovation, and I am an alumnus of the Global Young Academy of Science (200 young scholars who combine excellence in research with a demonstrated passion for delivering positive social impact). I hold a PhD in physics and master’s degree in business innovation.
For a list of my scientific publications, see my Google Scholar profile.