Gexsi – The search engine for a better world

Does Google have a monopoly in the search engine market? Not quite. Within a multi-billion-dollar market, there is more than enough space for alternative search engines who offer a special value proposition. In the case of Gexsi this is an ethical set-up, high-quality search results and a social benefit on top.

Search and do good!

For many people today, it is taken for granted that they – at least occasionally – buy organic food, opt for a green electricity provider or open an account with an ethical bank. What many don’t know: You can also make an ethical choice when searching the web! With Gexsi we launched a social search engine that supports innovative projects that positively change the world. We track how each project is linked to the 17 United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Gexsi has been founded by Andreas Renner, David Diallo and Kevin Fuchs. The three combine in-depth expertise in social entrepreneurship, media and digital platforms. Launching a search engines was the logical conclusion, when looking for an impact business model which could combine two goals: 

• to help closing the financing gap for an ever growing number of social enterprises who often have a too entrepreneurial set-up to benefit from grant support or donations, while being not profit-oriented enough to meet the criteria for investors.
• to share the inspiring stories of outstanding social entrepreneurs who take initiative and identify, pilot and scale bold, new solutions to social challenges, among as many people as possible. 

«Google earns more than a 100 billion US dollar through its search engine per year. If we can redirect a small proportion of these funds to the impact sector, we can boost social entrepreneurship and social innovation around the globe». Andreas Renner, Co-founder 

Internet search engines can do both. They have the power to generate enormous funds. Google earned last year close to 440 million USD a day through its search engines’ advertising network. And the reach is enormous: 3.5 billion people across the globe have a smartphone or use a desktop computer capable to search the internet. This is half of the world’s population. The smartphone penetration in the Western world is close to 100% of the active population. While people use smartphones for various purposes, an internet search is a component everyone needs.

Every click a step towards a better world

The potential to turn an internet search engine to a service which people join because they feel emotionally attached, is by far not exploited. With Ecosia, there exists a successful benchmark, but we at Gexsi believe that there are so many more causes people care and who are relevant, than planting trees. This is why Gexsi covers all 17 Global Goals and supports projects not just in the global south but also close to where its major user bases are located.

«Our users know that they are making the world a little bit better with every click on the net. Simply by redirecting a small portion of global search engine revenue to the social impact sector.» Andreas Renner, Co-Founder

Gexsi presents a new project every few weeks. “We are still testing different models, both with regard to the timing, the regional and sectoral focus”, explains Andreas. There are so many exciting projects, that we are tempted to switch very often. But featuring a project for a longer time allows to go deeper, and share more inspiring stories related to a certain impact area.”  

How we identify the projects that we support

Gexsi regularly screens the entire impact sector to identify suitable projects, in particular by looking what projects participate in social entrepreneurship challenges or form part of a mentoring program like the various Social Innovation Labs across the globe. The greatest share of projects has been found through the enactus network. With more than 70,000 students engaged across 1.730+ universities, it is the world’s largest program for student-led social enterprise development. 

Prior to featuring a project on our website, we assesses the projects within our team. For this purpose, we developed our own Gexsi impact scorecard, which comprises three clusters of criteria:

• the projects contribution to the 17 Global Goals,
• the extent to which it can be characterized as a social innovation,
• and whether we can make a significant impact with our means.

One way to leverage our means is to support ongoing crowdfunding campaigns of a beneficiary partner by sharing their story within our community or through our media partners.  

Find below a selection of supported projects

Enabling everyone to support the Global Goals

We have a strong ethical mission. Gexsi gives everyone the opportunity to do good every day without having to invest time or money. It is difficult to find any arguments not to use Gexsi. For those who are heavy Google users, Gexsi integrated the Google toolbar on top of its search result page, to guarantee easy access.

“Not everyone is in a position to make donations for good causes. But everyone can invest 60 seconds to make Gexsi his or her default search engine or to download the Gexsi App”. Kevin Fuchs, Co-Founder

“We reach people where they are anyway: online.” explains Andreas. “Our users know that they make the world a little better with every click, simply by redirecting a small portion of the worldwide search engine revenues to the social impact sector”. Switching to Gexsi is also much easier than changing your electricity provider or bank account: It just takes one or two clicks to set up Gexsi as the default search engine for most common Internet browsers, or to download the Gexsi App for your smartphone. Go for it!