Blockchain for Social Impact: Social Business Models and Social Enterprise Finance

Thilo Roth will discuss new trends in the financing space as the blockchain technology offers social enterprise finance intermediaries new opportunities. It also needs to be considered that investments in start-ups follow a very different financing path, which will be discussed in detail.

Federico Ast will discuss the business model of Kleros. Kleros is a platform which resolves consumer disputes in e-commerce and the collaborative economy. It is based on blockchain technology and game theory. In 2020, the platform was awarded the European Innovation Council (EIC) Prize on Blockchains for Good. Its legal form is a French Société Coopérative d’Intérêt Collectif (SCIC).

Wolfgang Spiess-Knafl will moderate the workshop and discuss some of the new business models in this space.

A background paper will be shared ahead of the workshop to help to structure the discussions.

Speakers

• Federico Ast holds a PhD in management from IAE Business School, is an alumnus of Singularity University and teaches on Coursera. He is the founder and CEO of Kleros.
• Thilo Roth has been involved in this space since 2015 and has spent time working as an investment associate for a blockchain-focused Venture Capital Fund in Hong Kong investing in blockchain projects globally. Thilo has a background in business and economics as well as web development.
• Wolfgang Spiess-Knafl works at the European Center for Social Finance, which delivers EaSI Technical Assistance services on behalf of the European Commission. He has an engineering background and started his career in investment banking. Wolfgang is active in the field of social finance since 2009. His current main interests are emerging new technologies and their intersection with social and environmental objectives.

(from the website)