Twenty startups and scaleups from South America’s Andean region and Southeast Asia will embark on a journey to improve their products and services as they join the world’s leading platform for affordable housing innovation. 

This report, released by Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies and proudly sponsored by Habitat for Humanity, through the Cost of Home campaign, describes key trends in homeownership and rental markets, highlighting how the COVID-19 pandemic and national dialogue around the need for racial justice impact the nation’s preexisting housing challenges.

This report provides a closer on the entrepreneurial landscape and housing sector in Andean countries. It identifies key local stakeholders, gaps and opportunities in the ecosystem and the key trends in the impact investment space.

This study aims to identify the actors supporting the social impact ecosystem in the Andean Region, the opportunities and gaps that exist in addressing the shelter sector needs regarding entrepreneurship and innovation and the effects of the COVID-19 health crises on the shelter sector.

Years of consistent economic development has sparked a growth in entrepreneurship across Southeast Asia. With this backdrop, ShelterTech can play a key role in bringing the right expertise and support to early-stage shelter enterprises so they can scale their models to meet the unmet needs of low-income households.

Experience the entrepreneurial energy of Habitat for Humanity’s ShelterTech Accelerator in Kenya, one of the accelerators that aims to identify, nurture and accelerate start-ups and growth-stage companies that serve the low-income housing market.

Habitat’s Terwilliger Center for Innovation in Shelter is working in Kenya to support local firms like iBuild, which has an app that allows homeowners to connect directly with local contractors to facilitate the process of home projects and construction.