100x invites applications to the next cohort of future social unicorns
Howard Lake | 3 November 2025 | News
Global impact initiative 100x is looking for the next generation of ‘social unicorns’ – organisations affecting positive change on the scale of billions – and is inviting applications for its 2026/27 cohort.
The social accelerator is looking for “radical thinkers, the visionaries and the entrepreneurs who crave a new, better world”. It uses the term ‘unicorn‘, which means a privately held startup company valued at over $1 billion, but it adds the different focus of “massive social impact”.
Specifically it is looking for people running or building a social venture that is driving change in one or more of the following areas:
🌍 Climate and Environment
🗳️ Democracy
📚 Education
💲 Inequality
😇 Happiness and Wellbeing
🩺Health and Social Care
👩🏻🔬 Tech for Impact
🏠 Refugees and Cohesion
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Applicants can be “registered and/or operating from anywhere in the world”.
100x is based at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).
Over the past three years, it has built a portfolio of 35 ventures that are already reaching a combined 100 million lives, tackling systemic issues across the globe.
100x explains its operating approach: “We reveal groundbreaking ways to amplify your impact – not through endless fundraising – but through tangible, results-driven models like government adoption, digitisation and open source solutions”.
If you’re not sure if you are the right fit, explore past members of the cohort.
Social ventures chosen for the 2026/27 cohort will receive £150,000 unrestricted grant funding with a chance to access further catalytic capital after the programme. Ventures will also leverage 100x’s bespoke accelerator programme and LSE’s world-class insights and expertise to scale their impact.
100x aims to support up to 16 social ventures every year, with 70% of these coming from emerging markets. The 2026/27 cohort will be split into two programmes: the Autumn programme, starting in September 2026, and the Spring programme, starting in February 2027.
Applications to the next 100x cohort close on 10 November 2025.
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About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.