2025 saw a 120% increase in applications to the programme
During our 2025 application window, we received over 950 applications from 95 countries. This was a record-breaking increase of 120% from our previous year – and shows just how much prospective talent there is of people wanting to start nonprofits to transform our global food system.
What was very evident this year was the quality and experience of those candidates.
More than 80% of our applicants can be classed as ‘highly educated’ – 40% hold a bachelor degree, 35% a masters, and 6% a doctorate.
The majority of applicants (70%) already have experience starting initiatives, with only 30% being first time potential founders. Out of that, 37% have started two or more prior initiatives, with 8% being serial entrepreneurs who had started more than 3 ventures previously. Almost half of the applicants have managed teams of 6 or more, with 16% having managed teams greater than 20.
The majority of applicants (70%) already have experience starting initiatives. Almost 40% have started two or more prior initiatives.
How we vet & select the best of these applications
As one stakeholder observed, going from 950 applications to just 25 places is “quite the haircut”. That’s why we employed such a rigorous application process this year. The application starts with a submission that contained over 90 questions, with the highest-potential applicants then being invited to complete personality and cognitive aptitude tests, submit a video, complete trial tasks, join us on group calls to test for fit and compatibility, before a final one-to-one interview.
We then sought external validation of our final shortlist from our network of funders, mentors and charity founders to help us select our cohort. The final selection were then invited to join our ‘phase one’ cohort where they could further develop their ideas under the close guidance of our team of mentors and experts from the movement.
From our ‘phase one’ cohort, we expect a third won’t continue past our mid-point Mission Readiness Review (MRR), meaning that only the most impactful 2% of all applicants graduate from the K4G programme.
This year, we also provided detailed feedback to many of the applicants that we declined, alongside offering resources and services for them to learn and further develop their idea, with an invite to apply for future cohorts.
Top idea areas
We saw a directional change this year in what ideas people were applying to work on.
Corporate engagement and artificial intelligence (AI) were the two idea areas which featured the most predominately – followed by ideas to create organisations that promote plant-forward policies, support alt-protein innovation and influence people in power.
More than half the applicants were open to welcoming another co-founder into their organisation, while more than 20% were actively trying to find one, showing a large demand remains for bringing together talented people to work on ideas to transform the system.
Corporate engagement and artificial intelligence (AI) were the two idea areas which featured most predominately this year.
Meet our 2025 phase one cohort
After a rigorous application process which saw over 950 apply for a position on the programme this year, we invited our final stage applicants to join the first phase of the incubation programme.