Saul Klein, a well-known technology entrepreneur and venture capitalist, has launched Zinc, London’s newest company builder.
Klein’s new venture will seek to leverage technology in an attempt to solve some of the most pressing problems being faced by society.
Zinc will be launching its first programme by bringing together 55 entrepreneurs from all over to the world to collectively work together and find solutions to address the challenge of women and girl’s mental health.
Participants taking part in Zinc’s first mission will learn from experts from some of the UK’s top universities, the NHS, the technology sector and the worlds of entrepreneurship and business before creating teams to work on the most promising ideas and bring them to life.
Saul Klein, partner at London-based venture capital firm, LocalGlobe, explained: “When I co-founded Seedcamp with Reshma Sohoni 10 years ago it was a leap into the unknown, but it along with YCombinator has quickly become a proven model for business creation. With Zinc we want to make a similar leap forward and start a movement to tackle global challenges in the developed world.”
“We live in unusual times and one of the big themes that is emerging is social activism. People want meaningful solutions to the most pressing issues they face in their everyday lives and they are increasingly realising that the solutions can not be effectively provided by the state or academics acting in isolation. We live in a world where over 3 billion people are connected and technology is capable of major leaps forward, we have a chance to combine commercial organisation and public sector thinking to impact some big problems.”
Ella Goldner, general manager and co-founder of Zinc, added: “We are looking for businesses that can have an impact on at least 100 million people. Our first mission – to improve the mental and emotional health of 650 million women and girls – illustrates how ambitious we are being. Our supporters from academia, government and the UK business community will help guide and inspire our founders to set up successful and scalable businesses that are responding to genuine social needs.”
At the end of the six month programme, Zinc expects to form between five and 10 early stage companies in which it will take an 8% stake.