The words "startup" and "non-profit" aren't often found in the same sentence. But this year's cohort from Morgan Stanley's Inclusive & Sustainable Ventures (MSISV) accelerator shows just how much there is to gain from bringing the brightest minds and ideas from these two worlds together.

"The world's biggest challenges don't fit neatly into either the commercial or nonprofit sector," says Sanghamitra Karra, Global Co-Head of MSISV. "Startups bring innovation and scalability. Nonprofits bring deep expertise and proximity to the communities they serve. When those strengths are combined, there's an opportunity to create solutions that are both impactful and sustainable."

This year MSISV introduced a thematic investment approach across four impact categories: Environment, Health & Wellbeing, Economic Empowerment, and Education & Human Capital. The 2026 cohort includes companies working in areas like space infrastructure, precision healthcare and next-generation energy solutions. At the same time, many are focused on improving outcomes for underserved communities, from healthcare access to economic opportunities for small-scale fishing communities.

Among the participants is Luxembourg-founded Exobiosphere, developing automated drug discovery labs that operate in space, and South Africa-based Abalobi, a social enterprise platform that's built an app for fishermen to connect directly with customers. The UK-registered Unconnected Foundation negotiates telecoms services at scale to connect 2.2bn people still offline through local NGOs.