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 inclusive and humanitarian innovation, especially Africa, and our focus is on the ‘exploration’ and ‘transition-to-scale’ phases of the innovation process.
Our customers are:
• Social innovation practitioners (e.g. corporations, 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). Now I have founded Acacia Impact Innovation to continue my career as an innovation consultant and social entrepreneur to help social impact innovators & funders be more successful, especially in the field of inclusive and humanitarian innovation. I recently worked with the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and with the European Commission, and I am supporting a number of social enterprises including www.inuka.io (a start-up in mental health).
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 a member 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.