2018, ISSUE 1 BAKU, AZERBAIJAN

Educate. Inspire. Innovate.

Building an Innovation Legacy: One

startup at a time! ABOUT
BY SOCIAL INNOVATION LAB

Social Innovation Lab is a leading startup center in Baku, 01

Azerbaijan that brings solution to different business and social Vision, Mission &
problems through innovative approaches to build sustainable Essence
business models.

We believe innovation is born out of passion and necessity.

Therefore, our vision is to discover passionate talents of any kind
02
and enable them to build globally impactful solutions.  Background &
Structure
Our mission is to educate aspiring entrepreneurs on the essentials of
entrepreneurship through the most up-to-date approaches, tools
and methodologies, inspire them through the success stories of our 03
alumni and build a strong innovation environment where they can
primarily focus on achieving the best possible results using their full Methods & Tools
potential and provided resources.
Background & Structure "We discover
BY SOCIAL INNOVATION LAB
talents, enable them
Social Innovation Lab was founded to bring solution to an emerging
demand in the local innovation ecosystem in Baku Azerbaijan. It was
launched on the 1st of August, 2016 by Jasur Hasanov, who is an
to fulfill their full
Entrepreneur, Marketer, Social Innovator and trained Startup Coach
& Business Advisor.
potential and create
After spending more than 4 years in well-established startup stories to empower
ecosystems like Singapore, Malaysia, Sweden and Estonia and going
through three international accelerator programs of three different their peers!"
countries (Cleantech Open from Silicon Valley; Young Social
Entrepreneurs incubator from Singapore; Global Accelerator
Program from Malaysia) Jasur came to realize the key gaps in the
- Jasur Hasanov
local innovation ecosystem in Azerbaijan. A month before his return
to the country he launched the Lab and a month after his return the
Lab started its first program - 15 weeks of Ideation Lab with 11 idea bodies like High Tech Park of Azerbaijan
stage startups. National Academy of Sciences and
Technopark of Baku Engineering University.
Social Innovation Lab is located in Baku, Azerbaijan and currently The Lab also partners with all main players
works very closely with several government agencies and corporate  of the local ecosystem like Khazar Ventures,
SUP Accelerator, Next Step Innovation
Center, Barama Innovation  &
Entrepreneurship Center of AZERCELL.

Social Innovation Lab has office spaces

within one of the leading public universities
in Baku where most of the incubation
program happens. 

The Lab finances its activities mostly

through short term sponsorship contracts
and private investment of the founders.
Third main financing channel is through
Startup Academy and Entrepreneurship
Training of Trainers programs. The Lab also
provides training services to third party
organizations like NGOs and government
and private agencies.

Currently, the Lab has a dedicated team of 6

JASUR HASANOV
and more than 30 volunteers who design and
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR & FOUNDER,
run short & long term impact projects on
SOCIAL INNOVATION LAB
entrepreneurship locally and globally.
 Design Thinking Workshop during the Social Enterprise Bootcamp in Ganja, Azerbaijan
Methods & Tools
BY SOCIAL INNOVATION LAB
In the core of programs designed by Social Innovation Lab is
approaches like Lean Startup and Design Thinking which have been
widely used by industry giants like Microsoft, Apple, IBM to better
understand the actual need or problem of consumers, beneficiaries
or the end users to build the most relevant and optimal solution.
Local Programs
The Lab currently runs Bootcamp series, Ideation Lab, Launchpad
Incubator at national level.  Bootcamp series on different themes
(social enterprise, cleantech, agribusiness) are designed to discover
talented founders. The startups born out of the Bootcamps are then
given access to 15 weeks of Ideation Lab program as the next stage
of their development.
Under the motto of "fail fast, succeed faster" the participating
startups go through series of workshops to achieve
problem/solution fit and product/market fit. Through following the
essential tools and techniques of Lean Startup methodology the
main focus of the program is on getting the startup built the initial
version of their products.
The program has achieved 100% success
rate since it was launched, all the
participating startups of the Ideation Lab
have pitched in front of the leading experts
in Demo Days with a validated business
model and a working prototype of their
products. 
The ultimate goal of the startups in the Lab
is to get into the Launchpad Incubator - a
startup incubation program by Social
Innovation Lab. The program focuses on
product refinement and user acquisition in
short period of time to support startups on
building a strong traction of sales and
revenue generation in 6 months. The
program has two intakes a year on February
and August.
The participating startups get selected
through the Ideation Lab and direct pitching
to the selection committee of the Lab.
Current batch of the Launchpad Incubator
includes BeBonobo, Uviba, Papillon,
MirvariStore and Mybostan.
 One of the three women entrepreneurs IvankaTrump mentioned at Global Entrepreneurship Summit 2017. 
From left: Leyla Taghizade, Co-founder of Social Innovation Lab, Reyhan Jamalova, ClimateLaunchpad
alumnus, Ivanka Trump, the advisor to the President of the United States.

The Lab has developed a brand new

Methods & Tools
BY SOCIAL INNOVATION LAB
As the main founding ingredient of its establishment, Social
Innovation Lab is committed to make the knowledge and experience
transfer to the local ecosystem from developed ecosystems and to
provide local entrepreneurs access to available resources and
funding opportunities in the global market. To fulfill that goal, the
Lab runs two international programs for local entrepreneurs in
Azerbaijan.  VentureBattle stands for bridging the gap
International Programs
To enable local cleantech startups to be part of the international
network of cleantech industry and gain access to funding
opportunities, the Lab runs the world's largest cleantech
competition ClimateLaunchpad which is also a pre-accelerator
program.
With the top 3 cleantech startups of the national final, Azerbaijan
competed in the Global Final of ClimateLaunchpad 2017 to get
Azerbaijan into the cleantech map of the world! Our national winner
CO2atalyser from Azerbaijan with a pitch on efficient conversion of
CO2 to Eco Fuels made it into the top 15 finalists among 105 startups
from 35 countries!
program, VentureBattle, to support
sustainable innovations at global scale. To
realize the program, the Lab closely
cooperates with its international network
(Cleantech Bulgaria from Bulgaria, Sunrise
Valley from Lithuania, Dreamups from
Moldova and 4 more international partners
from 4 different countries).
between the aspiring impact entrepreneurs
from the extended Baltic Sea Region and the
right resources and inspiration to enable the
creation of sustainable disruptive
innovations.
VentureBattle is a unique network of
mentors, accelerators and incubators spread
over Europe, Central Asia and America on a
mission to enable the transfer of sustainable
breakthrough technologies into real world
solutions by highlighting, empowering and
connecting the most promising impact
entrepreneurs of the region with the right
enablers.
 2018, ISSUE 1 BAKU, AZERBAIJAN

Educate. Inspire. Innovate.

Projects and Cases.

BY SOCIAL INNOVATION LAB ABOUT
Social Innovation Lab works with different kinds of  sustainable
innovations from cleantech solutions, like capturing CO2 and 01
converting into value added eco-friendly products, self recharging Uviba - Use API to
smart batteries through harvesting energy out of electromagnetic &
save the environment
radio waves, to software solutions, like saving energy and resources
consumption at large scale.

To communicate the overall picture of Social Innovation Lab's

02
solutions, three projects (Uviba, CO2atalyser, Papillon) have been CO2atalyser - CO2 to
selected as an example of  innovative solutions from different fields.  eco-friendly gases
Uviba.com (software solution)
03
Uviba is a solution for image intensive web and mobile platforms.
The smart API enables image intensive platforms to reduce Papillon - Artcycle
unnecessary usage of storage space and increase the loading speed.  waste into decoration
 
 due to fossil fuel use. The main challenge of
Projects and Cases. these factories is currently finding cheaper
BY SOCIAL INNOVATION LAB and stable catalyst with the high TON/TOF.

Being one of the early acquired startups of the Social Innovation
Lab, Uviba has achieved a lot in a very short span of time. The
startup won the first prize in the largest local startup competition,
YeniFikir 2017 and received initial seed funding, also were runner-up
in international venture battles like Seedstars, OIC Startup challenge
(Russia) and ClimateLaunchpad Azerbaijan.
The startup offers 85% reduction of CO2
emissions through its US patented
technology. The catalyst demonstrates high
efficiency and long-term stability in
comparison to precious metal catalysts,
such as nano-gold, platinum and ruthenium.

CO2atalyser (cleantech solution) The core team of the CO2atalyser includes

an Associate Professor in the field and his
CO2atalyser (www.co2atalyser.com) is an electrocatalyst that Ph.D researcher who have been working on
converts CO2 into various organic substances like ethanol and the technology for about 10 years together
methanol. It is an alternative of expensive precious metal catalyst with 4 university students.
which is used for the purpose of reducing CO2 level in the
atmosphere, producing eco-friendly fuel and addressing the global CO2atalyser managed to secure the second
warming problem. It is applicable industrially due to its economical prize of YeniFikir competition 2017 and
advantages like low-cost and green technology.  received initial seed funding, also achieved
to get into top-15 startups of
The main clients of CO2atalyser are ethanol and methanol factories ClimateLaunchpad in Global Final among
which release 36 gigatonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere annually  960 startups from 35 countries.

CO2atalyser as the winner during the ClimateLaunchpad 2017 Azerbaijan's National Final in Baku, Azerbaijan.
From left: Zahra & Aysel, Co-founders of CO2atalyser, Jasur Hasanov, Executive Director of Social Innovation Lab.
 Upcycled bookshelf, artcycled bottle and ceramic pot by Papillon.
Projects and Cases.
BY SOCIAL INNOVATION LAB
Papillon (social enterprise)
Papillon is one of the startups that were born out of Social
Innovation Lab's Social Enterprise Bootcamp program and currently
is one of the startups in Launchpad Incubator. The team has
successfully completed problem validation and market research,
achieved its product/market fit during the incubation period. The
startup is currently in the revenue stage and is profitable. 
The model of Papillon is strongly impactful for creating awareness
towards environment. The acquisition of the materials are done
through crowdsourcing approach and then these materials are made
into act pieces by independent artists and designers. The final
products are often functionally useful too, apart from being an art 
piece or decoration. The end products are
then sold back to the community through
online sales and also physical exhibitions
which again play very important role in
getting the community involved and
contribute to the cause.
The team includes independent artists and
designers as the core members of startup,
also advisors from the retail and consumer
goods industry.
More information about these and other
startups of Social Innovation Lab, as well as
its programs can be found on the official
website at www.socialinnovationlab.az.