Danone Communities

We're proud to see Danoners using their skills to support social businesses and entrepreneurs creating impact on the ground. Guillaume's experience perfectly illustrates what Impact3 is all about: connecting expertise with purpose to help social businesses tackle their challenges and scale their impact, while enabling Danoners to develop new skills, perspectives and experiences along the way. Thank you, Guillaume, for sharing your journey!

💧 We're heading to World Water Week 2026 in Stockholm!   From August 23 to 27, Danone Communities will once again be part of the world's leading gathering on water — this year under the theme "Water for People and Progress."   Our water team Céline Gongora and David Grolleau will be there to connect, learn and build.   And we're not going alone. We're proud to be joined by the entrepreneurs building bold, market-based solutions to bring safe drinking water to vulnerable populations: Mark Huelsenbeck from Impact Water, Minhaj Chowdhury from Drinkwell, Wesley Meier Meier from Cova, and Divya Yachamaneni from Naandi.    This year, we're in Stockholm with three ambitions: 🤝 Connect with the social enterprises we support 💶 Engage fellow investors ready to co-finance the next generation of water access solutions - because scaling impact takes collective capital  🔄 Spark peer-to-peer exchange between our entrepreneurs, so that shared learnings accelerate everyone's growth   Access to safe water is not a solo journey. It's built through patient capital, proven models, and partnerships that last.   📅 Will you be in Stockholm? Reach out to Céline and David - we'd love to explore how we can scale safe drinking water access together.   #WorldWaterWeek #WWWeek2026 #WaterForPeopleAndProgress #ImpactInvesting

💧 Danone and the Water Access Acceleration Fund (W2AF) featured in a United Nations report on blended finance! 📌 About the Water Access Acceleration Fund (W2AF): In 2019, Danone decided to partner with Incofin Investment Management – an impact first asset manager - to create the W2AF, a blended finance fund focused on access to affordable safe drinking water for all. In 2023, the W2AF was officially launched at the UN Water Conference in New York. By now, through its first two investments, the W2AF is already enabling access to affordable safe drinking water to >10 million low-income people, and more investments are coming soon… 🌍 Last week, at the London Climate Action Week, the UN Global Compact by the CFO Coalition for the SDGs launched a playbook on Business-Led Blended Finance, to help companies become active architects of financial structures that strengthen economic resilience and align with UN development priorities. 🚀 And we are proud that the W2AF is featured as the first private equity blended finance fund dedicated to scaling water-access businesses. It explains how Danone partnered with Incofin Investment Management to create this fund and to look for Development Finance Insitutions, Non-Profits and Corporates willing to join forces to help this underinvested sector get investment ready, and how Danone played “a Foundational role as anchor investor and sponsor of the fund”. 🌱 This is a strong external recognition of how Danone is pioneering in innovative financial structures to impact health at scale. 👏 Thanks to the UN Global Compact and the CFO Coalition team for their work on the Playbook! 📖 The Playbook is available to download from the UN Global Compact: 🔗 https://lnkd.in/e_SM-DFv Juergen Esser Valérie Mazon David Grolleau

Last Thursday, while in Kigali, Rwanda, for the Africa CEO Forum, our EMEA President Pablo Perversi visited Jibu’s Kinamba water purification and distribution franchise.   This is one of more than 190 franchises in Jibu’s network across 8 countries in East Africa, contributing to impact health by making safe drinking water both accessible and affordable, while fostering entrepreneurship and creating local jobs. A powerful example of an inclusive business model in action – empowering local entrepreneurs and delivering impact through robust operations.   Danone Communities has been supporting Jibu Inc. since 2017 on its journey toward scale and profitability.   Thank you to Antonia Nalunga, COO, and Bruno Tuyisenge, Country Manager Rwanda, for organizing the visit – and congratulations to you and your teams for passionately supporting franchisees to thrive. And a special thank you to MUVUNA Media, Franchise Owner, for warmly welcoming the team to your site. Louise Rials, Hendrik Born, Valérie Mazon, David Grolleau

Last Tuesday, on the occasion of his participation in the Africa Forward Summit in Nairobi, Kenya, our CEO Antoine de Saint-Affrique visited Arya Primary School, equipped with water treatment systems from Impact Water.   This is one of 60,000 schools across Kenya, Nigeria, and Uganda where these simple yet highly effective systems – installed and maintained by Impact Water’s teams – provide millions of students with access to safe drinking water every day.   Danone Communities has been supporting Impact Water since 2019, helping scale its impact at national level.   What stands out about Impact Water: ⚙️ Efficiency: a model designed from the outset to be simple, low-cost, scalable, and sustainable 📈Scale: already reaching ~50% of public schools across Kenya, Nigeria, and Uganda 🧭Ambition: a clear goal to equip 100% of public schools in these three countries, through stronger partnerships with governments   A powerful illustration of how patient capital, strong execution, and public-private collaboration can deliver lasting impact for future generations. And a concrete contribution to Danone’s Impact Journey commitment to expand access to safe drinking water for vulnerable populations.   Thanks to the Impact Water team for this insightful visit and the inspiring discussions, Tim Neville, Mark Huelsenbeck, Laure de Margerie, Emily Machocho K., Lucy MOCHE, Belinda Akoth, Lovine Awuor. Keep it up ! And thank you Florence Musalia – Deputy Director – State Department of Basic Education – Department of school Health and WASH for joining us for this visit. David Grolleau Valérie Mazon Louise Rials Galilee Sabouret

Our colleague Céline Gongora will be at the #SkollForum next week  — and we’re proud to see Danone Communities represented there. Céline will be happy to connect with anyone interested in discussing access to safe drinking water or healthy nutrition, and she’ll also be joining a panel during the event: “Rethinking Impact Investing: Capital, Risk, and the Next Wave”. Attending Skoll? Feel free to reach out to her and connect.

🐟 This is NOT an April Fool’s joke. Iron deficiency is one of the world’s most widespread nutritional challenges — and Lucky Iron Life is tackling it with a brilliantly simple innovation: the Lucky Iron Fish. In his interview with Jean Fox from AlterMakers, Gavin Armstrong (founder & CEO) explains how this small iron object can be used in everyday cooking to naturally increase iron intake — a solution grounded in science and designed for real life. At Danone Communities, we’re proud to support Lucky Iron Life since 2021 and to help scale innovations that can meaningfully improve health for millions. 👉 Read the full interview here: https://lnkd.in/e5pgGvAC   #ImpactOnHealth #IronDeficiency #Sience #SocialInnovation

Across Ghana, rising energy costs have challenged the way cold chains operate, affecting product availability, affordability, and the livelihoods of small vendors, with direct implications for food safety and nutritional quality. To respond, FanMilk Ghana, Danone Communities, and Koolboks have launched a pilot to test solar powered freezers as a more resilient and energy efficient alternative.   The pilot explores how sustainable cooling can:  - Lower operational costs for local businesses  - Strengthen cold chain reliability  - Protect food safety and product quality  - Support entrepreneurs and mobile vendors  - Enable new, more flexible financing and ownership models This cross-sector collaboration combines FanMilk’s deep market knowledge, Koolboks’ solar innovation, and Danone Communities’ experience in impact driven solutions. Together, we aim to build a more sustainable, scalable model for the future of cold chain distribution in Ghana - supporting healthier, safer food access for communities.    #Sustainability #Innovation #FanMilk #DanoneCommunities #Koolboks #EnergyEfficiency #SocialImpact  

We’re thrilled to celebrate a breakthrough from our partner Lucky Iron Life! This innovative social enterprise has just launched a new iron-enriched powder designed to help combat iron deficiency anemia, a condition affecting more than 2 billion people worldwide. Now live on their website (www.luckyironlife.com), Lucky Iron Daily makes everyday nutrition simple and accessible: just one scoop stirred into any drink or food item delivers 10 mg of elemental iron, helping people meet their daily iron needs without the common side effects associated with supplements. Alongside this consumer product, Lucky Iron Life is also preparing to launch a 2.5 kg bulk fortified powder, enabling large-scale fortification of meals served in schools, canteens, community programs, and humanitarian settings, including refugee camps. This model will allow essential iron to be integrated seamlessly into high-volume food preparation, expanding impact at scale. Like all their products Lucky Iron Life will also donate a portion of every sale towards donating units for free to facilities in need around the world. Since 2012, Lucky Iron Life has reached 1.4 million people, demonstrating how smart, human-centered innovation can drive meaningful and lasting improvements in health outcomes. At Danone Communities, we are proud to support pioneering solutions like this, innovations that advance our mission to bring health through food to as many people as possible by removing barriers to access and affordability. 👏Congratulations to Lucky Iron Life and Gavin Armstrong (he/him) on this exciting step forward for global health and nutrition! #ImpactInvesting #Nutrition #GlobalHealth #SocialInnovation #HealthThroughFood