FAROL was designed to unite and support projects in the fight against modern slavery, through collaborative innovation.

The first accelerator of its kind.

Meaning “lighthouse” in Portuguese and Spanish, the program comes to shed light on a serious, deep and hidden global human rights issue and in turn contribute to rehabilitating the 40 million people who are currently enslaved.

Startups, grassroots organisations and projects will be invited to work alongside world class mentors and advisors to accelerate their goals.

FAROL is a six-month acceleration program that supports startups and grassroots initiatives working on technologies designed to reduce labour abuse and modern slavery within supply chains.

An opportunity to access a rich mentorship program and world class acceleration services in order to develop innovative solutions to tackle a complex human rights issue; build a network of innovators in this field, connect and learn from exceptional mentors, experts, speakers and other participating projects.

2021/22 applications are now closed

We proudly welcome 18 qualifying participants to the first edition of FAROL, joining us globally from Canada, Chile, India, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan Portugal, Spain, the UK and the US.

We’re looking for startups and organisations on different stages of development, this is why we have divided the Startup Track into 2 sub-tracks:

Sub-track 1:

• Young purpose-driven tech startups that are beyond the idea stage, but have no product launched or only in an early version and that are looking to target modern slavery challenges (pre-seed).
• New projects within NGOs fighting modern slavery with an allocated tech-savvy team.

Sub-track 2:

• Startups with a functioning product and existent clients, aiming to add fighting modern slavery to their goals (seed/Series A)
• NGOs fighting Modern Slavery that want to adapt their positioning and growth strategy in order to get more clients and supporters to become sustainable or increase their financial sustainability.

The program is structured in 3 tracks: Startup track, Impact, Legal and Support track and Modern Slavery track.

1. The Startup track is strictly focused on topics related to startup creation and growth, from validation techniques to product development and business models (sub-track 1), the program also focuses on Elements of Value, Go-to-market strategies, and Pilot canvas & metrics (sub-track 2).

2. The Impact, legal & support track is oriented on empowering participants with knowledge and skills in the areas of legal, project management and impact measuring and reporting, as well as governance in communication with clients and authorities. During the Bootcamp we’ll focus on implementing the theory of change in practice.

3. The Modern slavery track is all about sharing experiences and inspiration. We invited specialists to host special Spotlight sessions where we will address the various challenges faced to identify, reduce and mitigate slavery within supply chains.

As well as having a impact on tackling one of the greatest human rights challenges of our times, by taking part in FAROL, participants will be be supported with: