On 1 August, the Blockchain Academy co-hosted the sold-out Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Impact Finance Event at MESTAfrica in Cape Town with Intelligent Impact, The Field Institute and sponsors, Allan Gray Orbis Foundation Endowment. Over 200 people attended the event which focused on how technology will change the way we measure, fund and scale impact globally, by scanning the current landscape of impact technology and exploring where we are headed. The event began with an overview of the exponential technology for impact finance space and then moved onto six TED-style talks by founders of exponential technology firms for impact, namely:

– Blockchain Academy’s Managing Director, Sonya Kuhnel,
– Aunnie Patton Power (Founder of Intelligent Impact, an Entrepreneur in Residence at the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship, an Associate Fellow at the University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School),
– David Wood (Founder of Wadappt- a blockchain based smart contract platform that uses innovative financing techniques to allocate substantial amounts of capital directly into conservation efforts in Africa),
– Shaun Conway (the founder of the Ixo Foundation and co-creator of TrustLab),
– Fleur Heyns (Part of 17AssetManagement, an asset management company in partnership with the UN based out of New York and Proof of Impact an impact verification company leveraging off blockchain innovations incorporated in the Netherlands) and
– Danai Musandu (member of the South Africa Goodwell team, where she is in charge of development of the investment process).

View some of the highlights in the video below.