Our story
A home for community‑owned innovation in the Cape Winelands. We connect lived experience with academic expertise and patient capital so local people can own the solutions their communities need.
Impact Makers
Impact Hubs
Lived experiences have value
Across the region, capable entrepreneurs lack access to the knowledge, networks and financing reserved for elite spaces. We built Impact Hub Cape Winelands to bridge that divide: a locally rooted, globally connected platform where ventures grow, ecosystems align, and policy evolves through evidence and lived insight.
Our impact journey
2000
Seeds of Change
In the year 2000, a group of passionate and idealistic graduates from United World College (UWC) Atlantic in Wales organised a groundbreaking millennium event at London’s Royal Festival Hall. They gathered influential figures, including Nobel Prize winners and even the Dalai Lama by video, to discuss pressing global issues.
2002
Defying Convention
The impact of their event caught the attention of the United Nations World Summit, earning them a unique invitation to organise a side-summit to the upcoming World Summit for Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in 2003. However, these visionary young Impact Makers chose to reject the traditional workshop format and venue and co-created a people’s summit in Soweto, where they collaborated with local activists who had turned a neglected wasteland into the inspiring Soweto Mountain of Hope (‘SoMoHo’), showcasing the power of community-driven change
2005
The first Impact Hub opens its doors
In 2005, with the experiences of the millennium event and SoMoHo still fresh in their minds and hearts, the group saw a growing need for a physical space where like-minded individuals could come together to connect and collaborate. Fuelled by their vision, they founded the first Impact Hub transforming a run-down London loft. Named ‘The Hub’ initially, this space became the nurturing ground for community-building, sustainable practices, and the perfect blend between activist passion and entrepreneurial ingenuity. The first habitat for social innovators was born.
2014-2024
Seeing what must change
A decade of hands‑on work across entrepreneurship education, social innovation and ecosystem convening revealed persistent barriers in the Cape Winelands: innovation concentrated in elite spaces, wealth leakage from communities, NGO models displacing enterprise, missing impact career pathways, and fragmented efforts across sectors. These insights shaped our commitment to shift ownership of impact innovation from the 1% to the 99%.
2025
Cross-sector dialogue: testing our Theory of Change
We convened 30+ stakeholders across NGOs, academia, business and local government to validate our problem statements and impact pathways, refine our value proposition per target segment, and surface immediate collaboration opportunities. The session affirmed the need to establish an Impact Hub in the Cape Winelands – and WE DID!
Ongoing
Vision 2030
As our Network advances into the future, our journey of transformation and impact remains boundless. Fueled by our values of trust, courage, and collaboration, we strive to create more meaningful connections and drive innovative solutions, paving the way for a radically better world. By 2030, we envision being beacons of the business of the future, harnessing diverse forces for good and collectively leading the impact economy to shape our present and future
