We joined 13 social enterprises selected to participate in the Adyen Accelerator!

We're just coming up for air after an incredibly memorable growth month in May. We were selected to participate in Adyen's North American Accelerator in Chicago last month, and it was amazing.

Here's a recap of the very incredible and intensive week. Make sure to scroll for a behind the scenes video made by Kind Laundry founders Angie Tran and Bernard Law!

It was a huge honor to be selected to participate - along with 12 other social and environmental impact startups who, like us, traveled to Chicago from all over the US, Mexico and Canada. It was truly amazing that Adyen selected us over hundreds of applicants as one of the leading impact-driven businesses across North America and had faith in our mission to make a difference while scaling up. Shoutout to our two Adyen mentors for taking time out of busy work lives to pour into us!

Below are the 12 social impact businesses who joined us in Adyen's North American spring cohort:

• Kind Laundry -  is an eco-friendly alternative to the traditional liquid and powder detergents in the market.

• Sitti Soap - an olive oil soap and lifestyle company celebrating employment, education, and empowerment of the refugee community.

• Scoria World - a sustainable Canadian yoga brand with unique slip-resistant cork yoga mats to spark the inner child. 

• Reya Health - matches you to the best birth control option for you, based on our individualistic and science-based approach.
• Joni (winner of Adyen's $30,000 grant in our cohort) - Certified organic bamboo pads & tampons when you need them. 

• Erandi Aprende - an online platform designed to offer STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics) education to young girls and women

• Madda Studio - Each work represents and celebrates the uniqueness, the non-repeatability, the idiosyncrasy of the material and the irregularities of bespoke handmade textiles.

• Perfekto Mexico
• Khadi Oaxaca - IS COMPRISED OF NEARLY 400 FAMILIES WHO LIVE AND WORK IN INDIGENOUS VILLAGES, AND ON TRADITIONAL FARMS AND HOMESTEADS.

• Fox and Robin - is the first and only activewear brand to disclose its factory workers' wages.

• Opal - Building the future of safety wearables. Opal is a thoughtfully designed smart ring that provides an extra layer of safety and security.

• Upbeing - Combines passive behavioural data streams with short, research-grounded feeling check-ins to provide users unprecedented insight into the hidden ...

We started the week at with our Adyen mentors, Pippa and Andrew, at Adyen's Chicago headquarters inside of WeWork Chicago. WeWork's rooftop basketball court was a nice touch :).

Adyen gifted us the coolest swag bags - made from recycled Adyen banner signs, and included local Chicago made treats and a refurbished Macbook laptop. Seriously, how did we get so lucky?

WeWork Chicago was such a fun spot to work for the week!

Throughout the week, Adyen brought in different team members and outside guests like head of product design at McDonalds, and we learned growth, marketing, branding and pitch strategies.

The Adyen team even took our cohort on a few night outings like a Chicago architectural boat tour and a Chicago Cubs game! We had the best time with the whole crew...

The last day was Pitch Friday where we pitched in front of the Adyen team, community members and investors for a chance to win $30,000 in unrestricted funds from Adyen to help scale our social enterprises. 

Here was founder Hayley Besheer Santell's pitch to win a $30,000 grant in front of judges Monica Tijerina from McDonald's headquarters, David Strazza from Adyen, William Colgrove from Chicago School of Business and Courtney Trunk from Motivate VC. 

Here we are with the other 12 social enterprise founders in our cohort. Congrats to Joni for winning the grant!

While we didnt win the $30,000 unrestricted funds "prize", we walked away with so much advice, a big network and a vision + opportunity for growth.