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Two other startups from Singapore, Genashtim and Bettr Barista, have achieved this certification earlier, which is given to socially-conscious companies

Gone Adventurin’ Jacqui Hocking, Ashwin Subramaniam & Laura Allen

Singaporean B2B startup Gone Adventurin’ announced today it was officially granted ‘B Corp’ status in January.

By becoming a B Corp certified company, Gone Adventurin’ will remain a for-profit enterprise with obligation to adhere to strict strategic considerations for workers, community, suppliers, consumers and the environment. One consequence of the certification is that the firms accorded the status need to show high standards of transparency.

The B Corp certification is granted by a non-profit in Wayne, Pennsylvania, called B Lab. It is considered a badge of honour for socially conscious companies and in the US, some states are allowing companies to be legally incorporate as B Corps.

(B Corp is to business what Fair Trade certification is to coffee or USDA Organic certification is to milk.)

In September 2015, crowdfunding site Kickstarter put the strategy in the international spotlight when it moved to Delaware to become, under the legal jargon, a ‘Public Benefit Corporation’. Other significant companies, which received B Corps status, are Etsy, Ben & Jerry’s, and Patagonia.

Gone Adventurin’ is only the third B Corp company in Singapore to get the B Corp status, after e-learning site Genashtim and Bettr Barista, which trains vulnerable citizens for success in the coffee industry.

“By being B Corp certified, [we get a] legitimacy above the rest, increasing our credibility for future clients,” Jacqui Hocking, Gone Adventurin’ Co-founder and Creative Operations Officer, told e27.

“Also, as working in sustainability and social impact becomes a bigger topic, there may be companies taking advantage of using [the trend] ‘greenwashing’ without actually putting in the work to change for good. By being a registered B Corp, our clients can rest assured we are certified across all sectors of our business and process,” she added.

Also Read: Does free social currency exchange sound too good to be true?

Gone Adventurin’ works with corporations to help them integrate “sustainability and positive social impact into a profitable and core part of business”. The company’s clients include major corporations, such as BP de Silva, InterOil, Mazars Group, Nanyang Technological University, Standard Chartered Bank and Unilever.

In Singapore, companies can only register as a non-profit or a for-profit organisation. They cannot completely reincorporate as a B Corp.

However, the country has The Singapore Center for Social Enterprise (raiSE), which offers funding and grants for qualified organisations. Gone Adventurin’ is registered at raiSE as a for-profit social enterprise.

The post Gone Adventurin’ becomes third Singaporean startup to get B Corp status appeared first on e27.

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