SINGAPORE, June 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — To meet the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, an enormous boost in innovation capacity is required. Even as assets under management (AUM) of impact-focused investors have increased from 500 to 700 billion US$ in the last 2 years, the supporting infrastructure for investable solutions has lagged. Innovation programs that provide structured training and plans are a valuable way to ignite and nurture impact enterprises that can grow to scale. However, many of these lack deep business advisory support that can help enterprises navigate the complexity of social challenges. To help bridge these needs, Dalberg, a leading social impact advisory group has acquired Ravel Innovation, a Singapore-based company that designs, builds, and runs an ecosystem of innovation communities and corporate innovation programs, to help clients broaden and deepen their impact globally. This new offering will combine the expertise of both organizations and strengthen Dalberg’s capabilities across Asia and beyond to help governments, NGOs, progressive corporations, and funders drive innovation towards meeting the SDGs.

As a result of this acquisition of Ravel, the teams will be able to help clients across the innovation spectrum, including building and running in-house incubators/accelerators; running innovation processes for specific problem statements; supporting young social enterprises to effectively scale; building global innovation platforms and, more broadly, helping investments in innovation be more socially impactful.

"We see tremendous value in bringing Ravel’s expertise to our clients who are seeking to unearth and scale innovative ideas for addressing the most pressing development challenges. The acquisition allows us to meaningfully engage with risk-takers looking to make a real dent in the challenges of today and the future. Importantly, the two organisations share a common ethos of keeping social impact at the centre of the problem statements we take on," said Gaurav Gupta, Partner and Regional Director for Asia, Dalberg Advisors.

"Over the past 10 years, since I started Impact Hub Singapore back in 2012, I have seen how social and environmental citizenship has evolved amongst our corporate and governmental clients – from an afterthought to a core belief, from maximising shareholder value at all costs to optimising for total stakeholder responsibility. As the first Google for Startups partner in Southeast Asia, our community has grown to over 28,000 innovators. I am beyond thrilled for Ravel to join the Dalberg global family and be able to extend our services and impact to an even wider audience", said Grace Sai, Founder and Director, Ravel Innovation.

Through this acquisition, which will be housed in the Singapore office that opened in 2019, Dalberg will greatly expand its innovation network in Southeast Asia including continuing to serve marquee public and private sector clients. This adds to the strong growth being experienced in Dalberg’s Singapore office and the region in sectors such as agriculture, digital transformation, and tourism. It establishes Dalberg’s team in Singapore as one of the largest impact advisory organisations in the country.

About Dalberg  

Dalberg is a leading social impact advisory group that brings together strategy consulting, design thinking, big data analytics, and research to address complex social and environmental challenges. It works collaboratively with communities, institutions, governments, and corporations to develop solutions that create impact at scale.

About Ravel   

Founded in 2012, Ravel Innovation builds, designs and runs an ever-growing ecosystem of spaces, communities and corporate innovation programs. Having worked with more than 100 organizations, it combines organisational psychology, startup-driven methodologies and an unparalleled network of global talent, technologies and experts to create real impact for their clients, who in turn, go on to change the world. It was also Google for Startup’s first partner in Southeast Asia.  

Media Contact:
Karishma Kram  
Director of Strategic Communications  
E: [email protected]   

Shweta Ramesh
Brand Communications Associate
E: [email protected] 

Gaurav Gupta, Partner and Regional Director for Asia, Dalberg Advisors

Grace Sai, Founder and Director, Ravel Innovation