Lighthouse MASSIV, Mastercard’s impact tech partnership program dedicated to helping one billion people live more prosperous and secure lives by 2025, is pleased to announce its fall class consisting of five sustainability- and social impact-focused startups from Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Estonia.

Thursday September 1^st, 2022 - Unlike traditional accelerators, Mastercard Lighthouse MASSIV is free and focused primarily on helping impact tech companies achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals through partnership. By connecting Nordic and Baltic startups with high impact potential to large organizations, the program aims to help sustainable innovators achieve global distribution. Mastercard Lighthouse MASSIV remains a competitive program for startups. Since the platform’s launch in 2019, 961 applicants have applied to Lighthouse by submitting partnership proposals to scale. MASSIV’s 2022 fall class stands as the most region-wide class in program history, prompting Mastercard to admit companies from Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Estonia.

Meet the fall class of Mastercard Lighthouse MASSIV:  

Wanda – The Norway-based leading circular logistics start-up provides easy access to space and logistics. Wanda supports circular and sharing economies by offering people and companies ultra-convenient maintenance, repair, sharing, and selling services that help extend the lifespan of products. Wanda is active in several Norwegian cities and Stockholm and is soon expanding to other European urban areas.

“The footprint from consumption is many times bigger than the world can sustain over time. We need smarter and better solutions to make it easy and affordable to take better care of and use our belongings longer. Being part of the Mastercard Lighthouse MASSIV program will enable us to accelerate our impact & growth - we cannot wait to get started.” – Lars Syse Christiansen, founder & CEO at Wanda

Klimate – The Danish startup is building the #1 infrastructure platform for scaling the carbon removal industry by bridging the gap between demand and supply. As a green tech startup, Klimate is delivering robust, future-proof climate impact strategies that empower responsible companies to achieve Net Zero and accelerate Carbon Removal technologies.

“Klimate is at the brink of solving one of the biggest issues within the carbon removal industry, namely how to ensure financing to rapidly scale up the capacity for removing CO2 from the atmosphere. We are therefore beyond excited to partner with the most prominent financial institutions in Mastercard Lighthouse MASSIV to leapfrog our impact and reach megaton scale within the coming years.” – Katja Grothe-Eberhardt, Co-founder and CEO at Klimate

EcoTree – The Danish located nature-based solution provider rewards businesses and individuals with a simple, ground-breaking concept of tree-ownership that builds biodiversity and supports sustainable forestry in Europe. EcoTree already has over 58,000+ individual tree owners and 1,500+ companies growing vibrant forests that preserve and promote biodiversity and help save the planet by capturing and storing CO2.

“By using financial incentives to encourage individuals and companies to support sustainable forestry, we have proven our ability to turn good environmental intentions into concrete climate action. The Mastercard Lighthouse MASSIV program will be an exciting opportunity to further scale EcoTree’s solution and reach the biggest impact possible.” – Thomas Norman Canguilhem, Co-Founder & CEO at EcoTree

Ignitia – The Sweden-based startup developed a first-of-its-kind weather forecasting model for tropical areas. Better weather data for decision-making allows farmers to improve their farming practices, reduce cost, improve yields and mitigate climate change induced risks. Ignitia’s localized forecasts, sent directly to farmers' phones, addresses the specific challenges of forecasting rainfall by modelling physics tailored for tropical conditions.

“A majority of the world's 500 million small scale farmers live in the tropical belt. Through our technology, farmers can access improved weather forecasts with the ability to increase agricultural performance, strengthen climate change adaptation and reduce food insecurity and poverty. Together with Mastercard, its partners and our fellow program participants, we hope to build partnerships to get closer to our vision of reaching 200 million farmers by 2030.” – Liisa Smits, CEO at Ignitia

Dillali – The Estonia-based startup is a mobile-first income and expense management tool for small and growing businesses in Africa and emerging markets to manage their financial records easily by transitioning from paper-based to a digital system. Businesses can manage their invoices, receipts, expenses and inventory all in one place, increasing access to finance and loans for growth.

“We are super excited about joining the Mastercard Lighthouse MASSIV program as it aligns with our goals of building a sustainable business that will change the way business is done in Africa. Having access to the Mastercard network will enable us to leverage decades of experience in accelerating our growth.” – Ibrahim Bashir, Co-Founder and CEO at Dillali

The companies joining the program have been chosen because of their desire and ability to scale sustainable partnerships. Mastercard hopes to enhance these collaborations to achieve the vision of making the world a more prosperous and secure place.

“Over the years, Mastercard Lighthouse MASSIV has featured companies like Desert Control, whose agritech nanoclay technology turns deserts into fertile land; Molecular Attraction, combatting vector-borne diseases like malaria, and SPENN, a company allowing people in developing countries to lend, spend and save money cost-free. It is truly empowering to see the different impact tech solutions that companies bring to the table in the Lighthouse MASSIV program, and an honor to help the five selected companies of the 2022 fall class to find partnerships for scale.” – Eleonore Hinlopen, Program Manager Lighthouse MASSIV, Mastercard Nordics and Baltics

“With our vision of helping one billion people live more prosperous and secure lives by 2025, it is important to support startups impacting both people and planet. This time we are extremely proud to work with five companies that are focused on solving both social impact and sustainability challenges. Mastercard can provide impact tech companies with the network to scale beyond their markets and supports the companies in realizing their impact faster.” – Mats Taraldsson, Head of Innovation, Fintech and Impact Tech Engagement, Mastercard Nordics and Baltics

Advisory Board  

As part of the Mastercard Lighthouse MASSIV program, startups receive feedback and support from Swedbank, Danske Bank and individual advisory board members with diverse and impressive backgrounds, such as Nordic Impact Funds, Synch and VNTRS. These board members represent sustainability experts, investors, and executives, each with their own global network: 

“It is exciting and energizing to support Mastercard Lighthouse MASSIV, a partnership program is where financial services meet impact to create actionable change! Scalable innovation is what societies need to bring about a sustainable paradigm shift.” – Shu-Wen Chan, Head of Sustainability Transformation at Swedbank

“It's an honor to be part of the Mastercard Lighthouse MASSIV program and get to know so many bright minds with a dream of making the world a better place through entrepreneurship. The program plays an important part in helping impact driven companies by connecting them with the right people and organizations across its vast network.” – Kristaps Prusis, CEO at VNTRS

About Lighthouse MASSIV 

Mastercard Lighthouse MASSIV is an open innovation platform designed to make and scale social impact and achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals with the format of long-term partnerships. By providing teams with competitive incentives and preferential access to partner resources, Mastercard Lighthouse MASSIV aims to foster partnerships that will enrich the lives of one billion people by 2025. Mastercard Lighthouse MASSIV is designed as a three-stage program. The companies meet with our advisory board, a hand-picked group of executives and partnership experts from around the world, who aim to bring a specific partnership to life. Each partnership proposal receives input from global experts in legal, design, and technology before reporting the results of their partnership endeavors back to the advisory board. The winner of the program is the team that demonstrates the potential to impact the most people via partnership. 

Read more about Lighthouse MASSIV here: www.mclighthouse.com/massiv