Yonca Braeckman is the founder & CEO of Impact Shakers, a global impact ecosystem tackling complex societal challenges through inclusive entrepreneurship. She is a mission-driven entrepreneur and investor in underrepresented founders. She helped build the Belgian and European tech startup ecosystems and is a sought after startup mentor and jury member. She has advised and mentored over 200 startups and was involved in global startup programmes & competitions like Empow’Her, European Social Innovation Competition, Village Capital, IBM Hyper Protect, PayPal Finance Forward, SXSW, Slush & Untold Stories.
She built a new smart city hub in Ghent, Belgium, with an in-house acceleration program called Watt Factory. She serves on the board of different non-profits and is the curator of TEDxGhent and the Techstars Startup Digest Reading List on Impact Entrepreneurship. She initiated the Horasis Young Visionaries for the Global Vision Community Horasis to add to her mission of lifting diverse social entrepreneurs. She was selected for the new group of Belgian changemakers “40 under 40” to help advance bold societal goals.
