Why now is a great time to set up a social enterprise

Two Fingers isn't your typical beer brand. Set up two years ago by seven friends working in advertising, the company donates all the money it makes to Prostate Cancer UK, a charity supporting the one in eight men in Britain currently battling the disease.

The seven co-founders, who all still have full-time jobs, don't draw a salary or claim any expenses from the firm.

"We're just seven guys enjoying themselves, drinking beer and having fun. At the same time, we're raising money for charity and doing good for mankind," says co-founder Will Waldron.

Initially hoping to sell just a few hundred bottles to friends and family, the take-up has been bigger than Two Fingers Brewery imagined. Its flagship beer, Aurelio, is now stocked in supermarkets including Tesco and Morrisons, and the company sold more than 80,000 bottles of their craft beer in 2014, the firm's first full trading year.

Waldron says there are big plans for the rest of 2015. The company hopes to sign a deal with a UK distributor to launch into pubs across the UK, which could bring in more than £1.5m for the charity. Plans are also in place to launch the brand overseas, while Waldron and his co-founders are also considering branching out into peanuts and bar snacks to expand the business further.

^{The seven founders of Two Fingers Brewery all still have separate, full-time jobs}

"People live their life paying money to the taxman, paying their dues. Then when they get older and have made a bit of money, they suddenly become altruistic and start to think about giving back to society. I don't see why it can't be done sooner. My hopes are that social enterprise takes on big enterprise and wins – with goods and services that are just as great quality, at just as great prices, but for truly great causes," he adds.

Two Fingers was one of 16 enterprises from across the world that gathered in San Francisco at the weekend for the final of The Venture, a competition organised by Paris-based whisky specialist Chivas to give away up to $750,000 to the businesses with the best social impact.

Five company founders walked away with prize money of between $75,000 and $300,000 to help grow their business.

They included Yoshihiro Kawahara from Japan, whose company SenSprout helps people produce more crops using less water; and Victoria Alonsoperez from Uruguay, who has developed a wireless technology platform called Chipsafer that allows farmers to track and detect anomalies in cattle behaviour.

Cattle is Uruguay’s principle export, and the Latin America country is still recovering from an outbreak of foot and mouth disease that devastated its economy in 2001.

Jose Manuel Moller Dominguez from Chile won the largest investment of $300,000. The founder of Algramo has developed a system that could help millions of people in Chile and other developing countries access cheaper food. Algramo buys essential products such as rice, beans, lentils and sugar in bulk from suppliers and distributes them directly to local grocery stores.

^{Economics graduate Jose Manuel Moller Dominguez aims to tackle food poverty across the world}

A specially-designed vending machine then allows consumers to fill a container with small quantities of basic foods at the same price per gram as if they were buying in bulk.

"We're reducing the price by up to 50pc because we cut out middlemen and don't have to pay for packaging. People simply keep the containers and re-use them when they want to stock up," says Dominguez. "Much of the population in Latin America live on less than $4 per day, meaning many low-income families are currently unable to buy staple foods in any great volume. Half a kilo of rice costs $1."

His vending machines are now available in more than 350 grocery stores in Santiago, the capital of Chile, and this will rise to 1,000 by the end of the year. However, there are plans to enter Colombia, Peru and Mexico within the next two years. At the moment, his company offers 10 products but this will soon increase to 18, including household essentials such as washing detergents.

^{Algramo's specially-designed vending machines allows consumer to fill a container with small quantities of basic foods at a cheap price}

Dominguez only sells to local grocery stores, which he says also provides them with another way to compete with supermarket giants.

"Chile's economy has grown a lot in the last 20 years but we're still one of the most unequal countries in Latin America. Many people are benefitting from the growing economy, but not the poorest - the divide between the rich and poor is still the same as the 1960s," adds Dominguez.