Mission Driven Capital

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.

1. Advantage Capital Partners (S/E) http://www.advantagecap.com
2. Aligned Partners (W) http://www.alignedvc.com
3. Arthur Ventures (T) https://arthurventures.com
4. Aspect Ventures (W) http://aspectventures.com
5. Astia Capital Runway (W) http://astia.org/astia-capital-runway/
6. Backstage Capital (W & C/S)  http://backstagecapital.com
7. Bain Capital Double Impact (S/E & C/S) https://www.baincapital.com/businesses/double-impact
8. Belle Capital (W) http://www.bellevc.com
9. Better Ventures (S/E) http://www.better.vc/approach/
10. Big Path Capital (S/E & C/S) http://www.bigpathcapital.com/
11. Broadway Angels (W) http://www.broadway-angels.com
12. Builders Fund (S/E) http://www.thebuildersfund.com
13. Catalyst Fund (M) http://cvcatalyst.com
14. Catamount Ventures (S/E & C/S) http://www.catamountventures.com
15. City Light Capital (C/S) http://citylightcap.com
16. Clean Energy Angel Fund (SE & T) http://calcefangelfund.com
17. Clean Energy Venture Group (SE & T) https://cevg.com
18. Collaborative Fund (S/E) http://www.collaborativefund.com
19. Committed Capital (S/E) http://www.committedcapital.com/
20. Commons Capital (S/E, C/S) http://www.commonscapital.com/index.htm
    
21. Cowboy Ventures (C/S & T) http://cowboy.vc/index.html
22. Cutting Edge Capital (C/S) https://www.cuttingedgecapital.com
23. The Cycle Effect Regenerative Capital (CS, M, SE, T, W) https://www.cycleffect.earth
24. Designer Fund https://designerfund.com
25. DBL Partners (M & C/S) http://www.dblpartners.vc
26. Echoing Green (W, M, S/E) http://www.echoinggreen.org
27. Elevate Capital (S/E) http://elevate.vc
28. Enable Impact (S/E) http://www.enableimpact.com
29. Expansion Capital Partners (T) http://www.expansioncapital.com/index.php
30. Female Founders Fund (W) http://femalefoundersfund.com
31. Fenway Summer Ventures (T) http://fenwaysummer.com
32. Founder Collective (S/E) http://www.foundercollective.com
33. Foundry Group (T) https://www.foundrygroup.com/
34. Fresco Capital (C/S) http://www.fresco.vc
35. Funk Ventures (S/E & C/S) http://funkventures.com/venturecapital/
36. Global Good (S/E, C/S & T) http://www.intellectualventures.com/globalgood
37. Golden Seeds (W) http://www.goldenseeds.com
38. Homebrew (S/E) http://homebrew.co
39. Hudson Clean Energy (SE & T) http://www.hudsoncep.com/index.php
40. Illuminate Ventures (W) http://www.illuminate.com
41. Impact America Fund (SC, C/S, T) http://www.impactamericafund.com/
42. Incite Ventures (C/S) https://www.incite.org
43. Initialized Capital http://initialized.com
44. Intel Diversity Fund (W, M) http://www.intelcapital.com/advantage/diversity-fund.html
45. Investors Circle (S/E) http://www.investorscircle.net
46. Kapor Capital (S/E) http://www.kaporcapital.com
47. Koa Labs (S/E) http://koalab.com
48. Lux Capital (T) http://www.luxcapital.com
49. Mindfull Investors (S/E) http://mindfullinvestors.com
50. Next Frontier Capital (S/E) http://www.nextfrontiercapital.com
51. Now Ventures (S/E & C/S) http://nowventures.co/
52. Obvious Ventures (S/E) https://obvious.com
53. Omidyar Network (S/E & C/S) https://www.omidyar.com
54. O’Reilly Alphatech Ventures (SE & T) http://oatv.com
55. Owl Ventures (SE & T) http://www.owlvc.com
56. Phenomenelle Angels Fund (W) http://www.phenomenelleangels.com
57. Pipeline Angels (W) http://pipelineangels.com
58. Plum Alley (F) https://plumalley.co
59. Precurser Capital (C/S) https://precursorvc.com
60. Radicle Impact (S/E) http://www.radicleimpact.com
61. Rise of the Rest Seed Fund (C/S) https://www.revolution.com/entity/rotr/
62. Rivet Ventures (W) http://www.rivetventures.com
63. RSF Social Finance (S/E) http://rsfsocialfinance.org
64. SJF Ventures (S/E) http://sjfventures.com/
65. Social Capital S/E & T http://www.socialcapital.com
66. Social Leverage (T) https://www.socialleverage.com
67. Social Starts T https://www.socialstarts.com
68. Sogal Ventures (C/S & F) http://www.sogalventures.com
69. Sou Sou (W) http://banksousou.com
70. Stray Dog Capital (S/E) https://straydogcapital.com
71. Strugatz Ventures (S/E & C/S) http://www.strugatzventures.com
72. The Builders Fund (C/S) http://www.thebuildersfund.com/
73. The Jump Fund (F) http://thejumpfund.com
74. The Rise Fund (S/E & C/S) http://therisefund.com
75. Uberis Capital (S/E) http://www.uberiscapital.com/
76. Unschackled (S/E & M) https://www.unshackledvc.com
77. Village Capital (SE & C/S) http://vilcap.com/
78. Vision Ridge Partners Sustainable Asset Fund (S/E) http://www.vision-ridge.com/sustainable-asset-fund/
79. Vulcan Capital (SE & C/S) http://capital.vulcan.com
80. Wave Equity Partners (S/E & T) https://waveep.com
81. White Road Investments (S/E) http://whiteroadinvestments.com
82. Women’s Venture Capital Fund (F) http://www.womensvcfund.com
83. 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.