As many as 200 people representing 120 European venture capital firms have signed up for a new initiative to encourage investment in high-impact startups.
Launched this week, ImpactVC aims to build a community of venture capital (VC) sector leaders to share resources and best practices to increase investment in impact VC across Europe.
The founding members collectively manage £12 billion and include leading mainstream VCs such as Balderton and Northzone, as well as impact specialists such as Bethnal Green Ventures (pictured above), Eka Ventures and Ananda Impact Ventures. increase.
ImpactVC is essential for sharing learnings, best practices, and better collaboration between generalist and impact VCs.
Northzone’s head of sustainability, Anna Skarborg, said companies with “great potential to scale” are emerging in the impact venture sector.
She added: ImpactVC is essential to sharing what we’ve learned, best practices, and better collaboration between generalist and impact VCs. ”
VC investment in impact startups has been gaining momentum over the past few years, with Impact startups worldwide expected to raise nearly $50 billion in 2022, according to Dealroom data. That’s down from his record $68 billion in 2021, but five times his 2016 level. Dealroom estimates that impact startup valuations in October 2022 totaled $2.3 trillion (although Dealroom’s definition of an impact startup is slightly different than the one used by ImpactVC). ).
ImpactVC members seek to accelerate this growth through advocacy and development of open source tools and products.
First, the initiative created the ImpactVC playbook, which provides a framework for early-stage VC funds to start investing in Impact.
Build the most effective ecosystem possible for investors, startups and society at large
Jon Coker, founding partner at Eka Ventures, said: whole. ”
Launched by UK “wholesale” social investor Big Society Capital, ImpactVC is independently operated and funded by the BMW Foundation, Amazon Web Services, NCM Fund Services, Taylor Vinters, Vauban, Katapult Foundation and Morgan Lewis. Supported by sponsorship.
Header images, left to right: Melanie Hayes and Paul Miller, managing partners of Bethnal Green Ventures, and Darren Agombar of Connected Asset Management, which acquired Bethnal Green Ventures in 2021.
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