Norrsken Foundation has unveiled the 2025 Impact/100, a global list spotlighting one hundred early-stage startups building solutions with measurable social and environmental outcomes. Compiled to provide credible optimism and practical role models, the list highlights ventures that are both impact-led and venture-scale. This year’s cohort features multiple African companies across fintech, energy, climate, and food systems, underscoring the continent’s growing innovation depth.
What the Impact/100 Recognizes
The Impact/100 elevates startups that tackle systemic problems while demonstrating scalable business models. Norrsken positions the list as a counterweight to pessimism, offering concrete examples of technologies and operating models that can move the needle. The framing is unapologetically execution-oriented, focusing on products in market, customers served, and pathways to sustainability.
How the 2025 List Was Built
Norrsken curated the list from more than 1,400 nominations submitted by 50 nominators that include leading investment funds, academic institutions, and NGOs. A final jury, convened by Norrsken, performed the last round of curation to ensure breadth of sector, geography, and approach. The methodology combines expert sourcing with qualitative assessment of traction, potential impact, and ability to scale.
African Presence on the List
Eleven African startups earned places on the 2025 roster, reflecting steady advances in financial inclusion, climate resilience, and digital infrastructure. Fintech entries include Wave in Senegal, Stitch in South Africa, Oze in Ghana, and Gigmile in Nigeria, each addressing different chokepoints in payments and access to capital. Climate and food system entrants range from Octavia Carbon in Kenya to FarmWorks and Nile, while Amini advances high-resolution environmental data for the continent.
Climate, Data, and Food System Solutions
Kenya’s Octavia Carbon is developing direct air capture systems that leverage a renewable-heavy grid and favorable geology to remove carbon and store it underground. Amini applies artificial intelligence to address environmental data gaps across Africa, enabling better planning for agriculture, carbon markets, and climate finance. Nile and FarmWorks modernize agricultural supply chains by improving market access, price transparency, and climate-smart production for farmers and buyers.
Selection Jury and Program Benefits
The final selection involved a hand-picked jury that included leaders from investment, government innovation agencies, and venture funds. In addition to brand exposure, Impact/100 recognition confers practical benefits such as access to Norrsken Houses in Stockholm, Kigali, Barcelona, and Brussels, as well as free global job postings.
The 2025 Impact/100 illustrates how emerging ventures are translating ambition into pragmatic tools that address finance, energy, climate, and food security at scale. Africa’s representation, led by companies like Oze, Wave, Stitch, Arnergy, Amini, Nile, FarmWorks, Octavia Carbon, and Gigmile, shows a pipeline that is both commercially grounded and impact-credible. As these startups expand products and partnerships, the list functions as a barometer of where practical innovation is gaining real momentum.