Mission Driven Capital Sources of Seed & Venture Capital with a Sustainability Bias
Mission Driven Capital: There are more and more sources of seed and venture capital which have a bias in favor of sustainable business. They add criteria beyond the purely financial to make their investment decisions, but that does not in any way imply that they are soft touches.
Any pitch to these investors in mission driven companies will need to be even more rigorous than to conventional Venture Capitalists—to include the benefit-based aspects of the startup. They make statements such as this one from Now Capital, “dedicated to enabling early-stage companies with transformative solutions for a prosperous world. We invest seed capital into paradigm-shifting companies and accelerate startup growth through our networks and growth expertise.”
Approaching these mission driven capital organizations is best done by reference, and in any case close attention will need to be paid to the investment criteria these sources of mission driven capital use and the special requirements they demand of potential investments. A blanket and un-tailored approach will not do. Find out about the stage of business in which the company makes investments there’s no point in approaching a firm that specializes in seed capital if your business is well-established.
Before you even start you search for investors in mission driven companies, you may want to browse nearly 550 angel investors in social enterprise on AngelList., where you’ll find a treasure trove of mission driven capital investors.
Many of the mission driven capital sources have a special focus. I have marked each of the investors in mission driven companies with their special focus, and some have more than one:
- Communities/Social Change (C/S)
- Minorities (M)
- Social/Sustainability/Environmental/Educational (S/E)
- Technology (T)
- Women (W), and take a look at the Venture Founders Directory of Funding for Female Founders.
Other investors in mission driven companies have an even sharper focus, for example:
Next Frontier Capital invests in Montana businesses; the Designer Fund invests in businesses where there is at least one founder who is a designer; Rise of the Rest Seed Fund only invests in promising seed stage companies outside Silicon Valley, NYC and Boston, or Afore Capital that only invests in pre-seed companies. Some, such as Wave Equity Partners have very precise purposes. In Wave’s case, it is to find and empower innovative solutions that create high growth businesses and also nourish our ecosystem.
This list in incomplete—for sure. Please write to will@venturefounders.com to make additions, updates or improvements.
- Advantage Capital Partners (S/E) http://www.advantagecap.com
- Aligned Partners (W) http://www.alignedvc.com
- Renewal Funds (C/S & S/E http://www.renewalfunds.com
- Arthur Ventures (T) https://arthurventures.com
- Aspect Ventures (W) http://aspectventures.com
- Astia Capital Runway (W) http://astia.org/astia-capital-runway/
- Backstage Capital (W & C/S) http://backstagecapital.com
- Bain Capital Double Impact (S/E & C/S) https://www.baincapital.com/businesses/double-impact
- Belle Capital (W) http://www.bellevc.com
- Better Ventures (S/E) http://www.better.vc/approach/
- Big Path Capital (S/E & C/S) http://www.bigpathcapital.com/
- Broadway Angels (W) http://www.broadway-angels.com
- Builders Fund (S/E) http://www.thebuildersfund.com
- Candide Group (CS/SE) https://candidegroup.com
- Catalyst Fund (M) http://cvcatalyst.com
- Catamount Ventures (S/E & C/S) http://www.catamountventures.com
- City Light Capital (C/S) http://citylightcap.com
- Clean Energy Angel Fund (SE & T) http://calcefangelfund.com
- Clean Energy Venture Group (SE & T) https://cevg.com
- Collaborative Fund (S/E) http://www.collaborativefund.com
- Committed Capital (S/E) http://www.committedcapital.com/
- Commons Capital (S/E, C/S) http://www.commonscapital.com/index.htm
- Cowboy Ventures (C/S & T) http://cowboy.vc/index.html
- Cutting Edge Capital (C/S) https://www.cuttingedgecapital.com
- The Cycle Effect Regenerative Capital (CS, M, SE, T, W) https://www.cycleffect.earth
- Designer Fund https://designerfund.com
- DBL Partners (M & C/S) http://www.dblpartners.vc
- Echoing Green (W, M, S/E) http://www.echoinggreen.org
- Elevate Capital (S/E) http://elevate.vc
- Enable Impact (S/E) http://www.enableimpact.com
- Expansion Capital Partners (T) http://www.expansioncapital.com/index.php
- Female Founders Fund (W) http://femalefoundersfund.com
- Fenway Summer Ventures (T) http://fenwaysummer.com
- Founder Collective (S/E) http://www.foundercollective.com
- Foundry Group (T) https://www.foundrygroup.com/
- Fresco Capital (C/S) http://www.fresco.vc
- Funk Ventures (S/E & C/S) http://funkventures.com/venturecapital/
- Global Good (S/E, C/S & T) http://www.intellectualventures.com/globalgood
- Golden Seeds (W) http://www.goldenseeds.com
- Harlem Capital Partners (M, T, W) https://harlem.capital
- Homebrew (S/E) http://homebrew.co
- Hudson Clean Energy (SE & T) http://www.hudsoncep.com/index.php
- Illuminate Ventures (W) http://www.illuminate.com
- Impact America Fund (SC, C/S, T) http://www.impactamericafund.com/
- Impact Engine (S/E) https://www.theimpactengine.com
- Incite Ventures (C/S) https://www.incite.org
- Initialized Capital http://initialized.com
- Intel Diversity Fund (W, M) http://www.intelcapital.com/advantage/diversity-fund.html
- Investors Circle (S/E) http://www.investorscircle.net
- Kapor Capital (S/E) http://www.kaporcapital.com
- Koa Labs (S/E) http://koalab.com
- Lux Capital (T) http://www.luxcapital.com
- Mindfull Investors (S/E) http://mindfullinvestors.com
- Mission Driven Capital Partners (CS/SE) https://www.missiondrivencp.com
- Next Frontier Capital (S/E) http://www.nextfrontiercapital.com
- Now Ventures (S/E & C/S) http://nowventures.co/
- Obvious Ventures (S/E) https://obvious.com
- Omidyar Network (S/E & C/S) https://www.omidyar.com
- O’Reilly Alphatech Ventures (SE & T) http://oatv.com
- Owl Ventures (SE & T) http://www.owlvc.com
- Phenomenelle Angels Fund (W) http://www.phenomenelleangels.com
- Pipeline Angels (W) http://pipelineangels.com
- Plum Alley (F) https://plumalley.co
- Precurser Capital (C/S) https://precursorvc.com
- Radicle Impact (S/E) http://www.radicleimpact.com
- Renewal Funds (C/S & S/E) http://www.renewalfunds.com
- Rise of the Rest Seed Fund (C/S) https://www.revolution.com/entity/rotr/
- Rivet Ventures (W) http://www.rivetventures.com
- RSF Social Finance (S/E) http://rsfsocialfinance.org
- SJF Ventures (S/E) http://sjfventures.com/
- Social Capital S/E & T http://www.socialcapital.com
- Social Leverage (T) https://www.socialleverage.com
- Social Starts T https://www.socialstarts.com
- Sogal Ventures (C/S & F) http://www.sogalventures.com
- Sou Sou (W) http://banksousou.com
- Stray Dog Capital (S/E) https://straydogcapital.com
- Strugatz Ventures (S/E & C/S) http://www.strugatzventures.com
- The Ecosystem Integrity Fund (S/E) https://ecosystemintegrity.com
- The Builders Fund (C/S) http://www.thebuildersfund.com/
- The Jump Fund (F) http://thejumpfund.com
- The Rise Fund (S/E & C/S) http://therisefund.com
- Uberis Capital (S/E) http://www.uberiscapital.com/
- Unschackled (S/E & M) https://www.unshackledvc.com
- Village Capital (SE & C/S) http://vilcap.com/
- Vision Ridge Partners Sustainable Asset Fund (S/E) http://www.vision-ridge.com/sustainable-asset-fund/
- Vulcan Capital (SE & C/S) http://capital.vulcan.com
- Wave Equity Partners (S/E & T) https://waveep.com
- White Road Investments (S/E) http://whiteroadinvestments.com
- Women’s Venture Capital Fund (F) http://www.womensvcfund.com
- Xcelerate Fund (W) http://www.xxceleratefund.com
PLEASE NOTE: If you make contact with any of these organizations, it would be very kind if you would tell them that you came to know about them through venturefounders.com. Thank you.