Power to the People: Vested Summit Opens its ‘Shark Zone’ to Public Voting

Conscious investing has become a buzz word in the VC world, but Vested Summit, the world’s largest conscious tech meetup, is working to bring meaning to it. The third annual edition of the summit will be held virtually this year on December 5th and 6th through Facebook, with over 100 hours of content, with 65 speakers spanning 25 countries. This year’s summit is centered around the pillar of ‘Believe’- believing in one’s self, their future, and the global impact they can have.

This year’s Shark Zone will be different than previous years, in that virtual attendees will be asked to vote for what startups they believe in. Pitch videos will be published for public viewing and those with the top votes will have the opportunity to make a final pitch to a panel of impact investing leaders. Three startups will then be chosen to split $100,000 in equity investments. An unusual but intriguing step, the purpose behind the audience component is to help democratise the process and allow the masses to vote as opposed to keeping it restricted to a top few- which is what usually happens in the investment world. 

“This is the year of conscious investing,”  Salma El-Hariry (pictured in main image), founder of Skaleup Ventures and Vested Summit, said of the decision to create a public vote. “We’re here to democratise how the future is getting built by enabling investors to pump money into the companies that they think are actually building a more sustainable and equitable future. We believe that the whole planet is being punished as a result of unconscious decisions made by a few people. It’s time for us to give power and voice to the people to invest in building the future and building their own realities.”

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