Marcel Fukayama On Expanding the B Corp Movement to a Global Context

Marcel Fukayama is an Impact Entrepreneur, Cancer Survivor, and Co-Founder of Din4mo, leveraging finance and innovation to promote equity and dignity.

A key figure in the B Corp movement, he co-founded Sistema B Brazil and expanded it across Latin America as Executive Director of Sistema B International. Currently, as Senior Policy Advisor at B Lab, he aligns public policies with systemic change.

With a degree in Business, an MBA, and a Master’s in Public Administration from LSE, Marcel’s dedication to public policy includes roles in Marina Silva’s 2018 presidential and 2022 congressional campaigns. He’s served on boards like GSG Impact, Conexsus, and IDIS, and contributes to Brazil’s ENIMPACTO committee and Brazil Presidency's Advisory Council.

At 17, Marcel pioneered one of Brazil’s first internet cafés and later, as CEO of CDI Global, led a 15-country network using technology for social change. His work inspires efforts toward a more inclusive and regenerative global economy.

Marcel discusses the continuous growth and impact of the B Corp movement in Brazil, and the common pitfalls associated with unsuccessful purpose driven businesses.

Highlights from the interview (listen to the podcast for full details)

[Tom Allen] - To start off, can you please share a bit about your background and what led to you working in the B Corp and social enterprise movements?

[Marcel Fukayama] - I always believed in the power of businesses to promote social change. When I was 17, I created my first social venture. Learning by doing, I realised the power of the private sector, mobilising capital, and creating ventures to reduce inequalities and promote social change.

After some years doing this, in 2009, I was raising funds with a specific investor in Brazil. They called themselves impact investors, and I thought to myself, how can one call themselves an impact investor? I found my answer in a tool called Global Impact Investing Rating System or GIIRS. To my surprise, this impact investment fund was going through the process of becoming one of the pioneers of GIIRS.

When we applied to GIIRS in the impact investment, I completed a reflection, with the final question asking, “are you a certified B Corp, yes or no?” In my case it was no, I didn’t understand what that meant at the time.

That question changed my life. I discovered there was a movement in North America with 300 businesses trying to use business as a force for good. It connected with my essence immediately, The power of innovation, creativity, and scaling solutions to promote systems change.

I applied to become a B Corp, and eventually, in 2010, I became one of the first certified B Corps in Latin America. I felt very inspired to bring the movement to Brazil. I flew to B Lab, which is the non-profit behind the B Corp movement, and I asked them about creating a B Lab Brazil. They said to me, “of course, why?” I told them that it should not only be a North American movement, it should be a global movement.

They told me about some folks in Chile creating a new organisation called Sistema B and how they were their first global partner based in Latin America. They connected me with the Chilean entrepreneurs who were setting up Sistema B Chile, Colombia, and Argentina. We summed up efforts to launch in Brazil and later I became the executive to lead the expansion across Latin America and the Caribbean.

That was around 13 years ago, and we now have a new cycle of growth and maturity in the movement. The B Corp movement became one of the most innovative economic movements, bringing together two virtues, the inspiration for an inclusive, equitable, and regenerative economy, and a concrete, pragmatic, and objective way to do it using the B Impact Assessment. The tool allows you to measure, manage, and report your impact in your company. That’s how we support the business sector in promoting systems change.

What types of projects are you involved in for Sistema B and Din4mo?

Sistema B is one of B Lab's global partners. Sistema B International is the partner for Latin America and the Caribbean. We cover 19 countries and have 10 country partners across the region. Brazil is the largest market in the region with over 350 certified B Corps, and over 15,000 businesses using the B Impact Assessment to manage impact.

One of the greatest innovations of Sistema B is to offer a systemic approach to the B Corp movement. The movement should be far beyond a business-driven movement; it should be a systems change approach. We've brought together academics, policy leaders, opinion leaders, buyers, and a whole different set of players to build infrastructure in this ecosystem.

This has been the greatest contribution of Sistema B to the B Corp movement, allowing Latin America today to generate more innovations across the movement, including B Multipliers and many other programs we offer.

We have five jurisdictions that have passed the benefit for legislation, which are policy proposals to incentivise businesses to behave like a B Corp, operating with purpose, accountability, and transparency.

I co-founded Din4mo with my business partner 13 years ago. This company is, of course, a B Corp. Basically, as entrepreneurs, we realised other social entrepreneurs were facing a challenge to fundraise with impact investors, because there is an asymmetric relationship between power, capital, etc.

We've been putting together a program to support entrepreneurs to access capital, markets, management, and governance. It's an acceleration program, and we’ve supported 130 different impact businesses across Brazil. We have invested and mobilised capital in a more innovative way.

We've been pioneering in crowd equity and blended finance, among other innovative ways to mobilise capital. We've been involved in relevant initiatives in Brazil, like the reconstruction after the 2024 southern Brazil floods. Recently we've been developing an approach focused on building ecosystems, systemic leadership, and infrastructure for the ecosystem.

We represent GSG Impact and Convergence in Brazil. Convergence is a Canadian organisation focused on globally developing blended finance, while GSG Impact is a UK based organisation focused on developing the impact investing ecosystem globally.

Din4mo is about building ecosystems, strengthening this ecosystem, and supporting entrepreneurs to thrive and scale their impact. We are very focused on reducing inequalities and promoting dignity and equity.

How has the business for good movement in Brazil changed in the past few years and where do you see it going in the years ahead? What do you believe is needed to make business for good business as usual?

Brazil is an innovative market in the business sector. In 1992, Brazil hosted the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. That changed the business sector and civic society forever. After that, in Brazil, there was the concept that corporate social responsibility is important, but not enough.

This was prevalent for one or two decades after Rio ’92, and after that, other emerging concepts arose like social business with Professor Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate in 2006 alongside Grameen Bank.

It became important for Brazil to take one step forward and declare that businesses cannot only work towards maximising profits, but also generating impact.

In 2010, Sir Ronald Cohan started setting up an organisation called GSG, Global Steering Group for Impact Investment. He said the capital markets had to change and we need to consider not only risk and return, but also a third variable - impact.

That changed the financial market in Brazil, leading to where it is currently, sitting as one of the largest markets in the America's for impact investment. In terms of supply and demand of capital, that really shaped the 2010s. Then, GSG came in and influenced great Brazilian multinational corporations to change European MNCs that operated in Brazil.

Brazil has over 19 million businesses registered and active in the country, making it number three on the planet. The US has 50 plus million businesses, the EU has 27 million businesses, and Brazil has 19 million.

The key question now is how do we empower all of those 125 million businesses across the planet to behave like a B Corp? How can we drive the purpose of positive impact, stakeholder accountability, and a commitment to transparency by measuring, managing, and reporting their impact? That's the question I'm trying to answer to truly use businesses as a force for good.

What do you see as some of the most important traits of the leaders and social entrepreneurs who are leading these businesses tackling big problems?

When you think about the important traits of a social entrepreneur or business leader in general, we see traits like resilience. That's probably one of the key ones. We also see creativity, innovative approaches, compassion, and an ability to mobilise people.

When you touch people's hearts, it is truly limitless, and these leaders are adept in social and emotional skills. They can take on a systemic view, manage conflict, ambiguity, and duality. They handle nuance with an understanding it's not about right and wrong, left to right. These leaders are truly bridge builders and these are some of the traits we need more than ever.

What are common reasons that you believe purpose driven businesses fail?

We truly need to talk more about failure. I think the most common failure is when these entrepreneurs or leaders are more passionate about the solution than the problem. They lose themselves in their passion for the solution, so they miss the big picture.

Being an innovative business leader today, you need to utilise the power of empiricism. You need to learn by doing and you have to adjust yourself every time. It's a constant battle, so you need to keep doing. When you fall in love with your solution, you miss the big picture and you can’t truly connect with the problem. You end up missing your mission.

That's one of the most common failures, as well as being more objective.I Another failure is in relation to governance. These leaders and entrepreneurs think governance is for a publicly traded company or a large multinational corporation, while governance is important for everyone.

Governance is about defining the rules of your game with your business partner and stakeholders. It's about aligning expectations, and when we see these entrepreneurs underestimating their need for governance, it's probably one of the biggest threats to their entrepreneurship.

What inspiring projects or initiatives have you come across recently creating a positive social change?

In Brazil, I'm very close to an initiative called Vivenda. Vivenda has been revolutionising the renovation of houses in favelas for decades. The entrepreneurs behind this business are very resilient and passionate about the challenge.

It's truly incredible when I go to a slum and see a family who has had their lives truly changed because of their house being renovated. According to the UN, housing is so important because the root of social issues is often intertwined with housing. If you address the housing challenge and create affordable housing, we start reducing inequality by its nature. That's one of the greatest initiatives I've seen creating positive social change.

To finish off what books or resources would you recommend to our listeners?

There is a great friend of the B Corp movement called Christopher Marquis. He wrote a book recently called The Profiteers: How Business Privatizes Profits and Socializes Costs. I think it's a great book, touching on the essence of the social challenges we have in the business sector.

I also want to emphasise another book from bell hooks, called All About Love. In the beginning hour of our conversation, you brought up the need to take action. I think Bell Hooks put in very wise words one of the meanings of love.