BUSINESS - For-Profit Companies Created to Impact Social Issues

With millennials being a generation of social innovators, many companies are building social innovation into their business.

There is also a growing number of businesses being created for social innovation - the integration of private capital with public and philanthropic support.

One example is 7 Virtues, a Canadian company created specifically to empower families in countries that are rebuilding.

Inspired by her injured friend’s experience in the military in Afghanistan, founder Barb Stegemann started a perfume company that sourced essential oils from the war-torn country.  

Stegemann read about Abdullah Arsala, owner of a distillery in Jalalabad, Afghanistan who was trying to support his tribe by creating legal crops of orange blossom and rose instead of the poppy crop that accounts for 90% of the world’s heroin supply.

Her company’s mission: Make Perfume Not War. To make rebuilding more exciting than destruction.

Since they began sourcing oils from Afghanistan, they have expanded to also include Haiti and Rwanda.

7 Virtues purchase their organic patchouli essential oil from farming co-operatives in Rwanda so locals can buy school uniforms and build homes for their families.

Another goal of the company is to encourage other businesses to trade with nations that are rebuilding:

“Buy their saffron, buy their soaps, candles, essential oils, buy anything that will empower families to buy books and shoes for their children and take it to market.”

7 Virtues pays fair market value for their oils and does not test on animals.

A documentary - Perfume War - was created that tells the story of Stegemann and the creation of her company, including an appearance on Dragon’s Den and subsequent investment by businessman and philanthropist W. Brett Wilson.

Because millennials are so concerned about social issues such as human rights, racial justice, gender equality, representation and more, it won’t be surprising to see more businesses embrace social innovation or be founded based on the concept.

Industry - ViewTrak changes hands, Burlet Leaves

An investor group led by Dragon's Den panelist W. Brett Wilson announced yesterday it has control of Viewtrak Technologies, a livestock software company founded in Edmonton during 1999.  Viewtrak was one of several companies spawned by the livestock industry during the period. Jake Burlet leaves Viewtrak after investing more than a decade of his career to integrate technology into beef production.  

Those familiar with the story will recall that Shawn Ovendon, one of the developers of the CAIMAS(tm) technology which now underlies the PetLynx offering, left to join Jake Burlet and the Viewtrak gang. PetLynx left a difficult large animal industry in 2003 to pursue opportunities in the companion animal industry where conditions appeared more favorable.

"It is a well known fact that companies pursuing the animal information business, have had good intentions but failed to gain a foothold in industry or failed to raise capital," said Larry Evans, President and CEO of  PetLynx Corporation.  "PetLynx has been fortunate to have survived under these conditions and to have achieved a market penetration of more than 8% of the companion animal industry in Canada."

Wilson, was previously invested (Dragon's Den) in tracking technologies through a Winnipeg firm that specialized in recovering cameras, laptops and cellphones. The Viewtrak investment may leverage this subject matter expertise. Industry observers wonder if this change in Viewtrak investor group signals renewed interest in tracking technology and the animal information sector. 

Read the Edmonton Journal article