Earlier this month, Singularity University hosted participants from the MAN Accelerator, a social impact accelerator created by Yunus Social Business and MAN Truck and Bus to support social entrepreneurs from Europe, South Africa, and India tackling social and environmental challenges through innovative solutions in the transport and logistics sector.I discussed with the group of social innovators how exponential technologies are revolutionizing access to food, learning, shelter, and transportation for the world’s poorest two billion people. In the Q&A after the presentation, the participants raised important questions and points about how important it is to ensure that non-technologists and people experiencing social challenges are also leading the development of technological solutions to problems—either by becoming technologists themselves or partnering with technologists to co-found initiatives together.
The group also discussed whether we are heading into a world where a few large technology companies will be building the majority of our products and services in the future or if we will have millions of smaller innovators and businesses selling products and services through abundance based business models.Yunus Social Business is an Impact Partner of Singularity University, and over the last few years, the groups have collaborated through faculty and speaker exchanges and the mentoring of impact startups. Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, who founded Yunus Social Business along with the Grameen Bank and many other pioneering social initiatives, spoke at the Opening Ceremony of SU’s 2015 Global Solutions Program (now Global Startup Program) in Mountain View, CA, and at the SingularityU New Zealand Summit in 2017.We’re honored to host such distinguished leaders and luminaries at SU for the benefit of our program participants and global community. If you’d like to have an opportunity to hear world-renowned experts speak about humanity’s grand challenges, please join us at SU Global Summit in San Francisco August 19-21.