As the former founder of Philips Africa Innovation Hub, Maarten 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 he has founded Acacia Impact Innovation to continue his 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. He recently worked with the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and with the European Commission, and he is supporting a number of social enterprises through the Acacia Impact innovation. Examples include Inuka, a start-up in mental health and the Solar Soaker BV.
Acacia Impact Innovation helps social impact innovators and funders be more successful, and they develop social innovations ourselves in collaboration with others. They do this through advisory/consultancy as well as hands-on services, such as ideation, business strategy, public-private partnerships, fundraising and business planning. The main focus is on inclusive and humanitarian innovation, especially Africa, and the focus is on the ‘exploration’ and ‘transition-to-scale’ phases of the innovation process.
