Hystra

Hystra is a consulting firm specializing in inclusive businesses. It was founded in 2009 by Olivier Kayser – a former senior partner at McKinsey and VP at Ashoka – out of the realization that thousands of social entrepreneurs had designed solutions that work locally but only a handful of them had reached scale. In other words, the ”lab for social innovation is full, but that the plant for globalization remains empty”. Hystra's mission is to work with corporations, social entrepreneurs and investors to design and implement inclusive businesses that are innovative, profitable, and scalable. 

Over the past 7 years, Hystra has studied over 1,000 inclusive businesses in housing, energy, water and sanitation, information and communication technologies, financial services, health, agriculture, mobility, and nutrition, narrowing down to over 150 organizations that we have visited and analyzed in depth, gaining deep insights into key success factors and obstacles to scale. Its competencies include open source research, inclusive business strategy, implementation support, and capacity building.

Hystra is notably part of a consortium with Ashoka, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and New Ventures to promote social entrepreneurship and tackle poverty in Latin America through a 4-year program.