Tena Pick, CEO and co-founder of The Sustainability Platform, UAE, is a social impact consultant, passionate about women empowerment, community development and social impact measurement. She is based in Dubai with extensive experience in the Middle East, Caribbean, and South and Southeast Asia.
She co-founded the sustainability platform with a view of connecting investors with entrepreneurs having ‘impact business ideas’ and help startups receive strategic funding. “If the cause is right, and is ready to make social impact we are here to support it. Each year we pick up dozens of teams from the Middle-East and Asian countries like India, which are a boom in the social sector ideas,” she says.
She has built a social impact consultancy dedicated to integrating social business principles into core business operations. Married to an Indian, she understands the Indian psychology very well.
Unlike every other global and Indian investor, she did not undermine the Indian pace of innovation. Tena said, “I don’t think India lacks in terms of creating products, sure it is a fact that here startups offering diverse are mushrooming but I don’t think that will be the scenario for very long. Just wait and watch. People say that there are many copycat-models in e-commerce but I would say since this country is home to such a huge population, people thinking in terms of societal change are even more.”
TSP’s clients include non-for profit organizations, social enterprises and CSR departments. Tena is also the Head of Social Impact for C3-Consult and Coach for a Cause and Director of Consultancy at VentureFin.
Her goal this year is to support gender leadership, promote the role of women investors in the industry and also associate with Women empowerment causes.
Her firm, VentureFin, is an innovative crowd-funding platform bringing together global high-impact businesses and investors from the Middle East. She decided to focus on scaling up startups that come to her by guiding on capacity building, achieving economies of scale.”
Tena is doing some really good work and has completed almost 6 years in the investment consultation field. Through her experience she has learnt how to plan strategic partnerships in different countries for building businesses.
Tena is a member of Mentorship Committee Member at e7-Promise of a Generation initiative and has mentored startups from Gaza, Middle East, India and Europe. Tena is a regular speaker at social business conferences around the world and a contributor to Training Magazine Middle East and Entrepreneur ME.
As a mentor, she has worked with startups from the Caribbean, Gaza and the Middle East. She focuses on female-run enterprises, innovation and disruption and social responsibility. She holds a Master of Social Entrepreneurship from Hult International Business School and a Bachelor’s Degree in Entrepreneurial Economics from VERN University of Applied Science.
Last but not the least she said, “Overall, it is true that the startup ecosystem, the funding has seen a slowdown but I would like to differentiate the scenario I see in India from the Middle-Eastern nations. In middle-east, there are multiple actions going at once, affecting the pricing of oil, social instability, violence, etc., but in India, there a big time excitement and the startups wasn’t the raise funds, want to solve problems and do the pitch right.”
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Soumya is a young writer and journalist, with bachelors in Multimedia and Mass Communication. She is an alumini of the Asian College of Journalism, and finds politics and sustainability intriguing beats to work with.
