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. Renewal Funds (C/S & S/E http://www.renewalfunds.com
4. Arthur Ventures (T) https://arthurventures.com
5. Aspect Ventures (W) http://aspectventures.com
6. Astia Capital Runway (W) http://astia.org/astia-capital-runway/
7. Backstage Capital (W & C/S)  http://backstagecapital.com
8. Bain Capital Double Impact (S/E & C/S) https://www.baincapital.com/businesses/double-impact
9. Belle Capital (W) http://www.bellevc.com
10. Better Ventures (S/E) http://www.better.vc/approach/
11. Big Path Capital (S/E & C/S) http://www.bigpathcapital.com/
12. Broadway Angels (W) http://www.broadway-angels.com
13. Builders Fund (S/E) http://www.thebuildersfund.com
14. Candide Group (CS/SE) https://candidegroup.com
15. Catalyst Fund (M) http://cvcatalyst.com
16. Catamount Ventures (S/E & C/S) http://www.catamountventures.com
17. City Light Capital (C/S) http://citylightcap.com
18. Clean Energy Angel Fund (SE & T) http://calcefangelfund.com
19. Clean Energy Venture Group (SE & T) https://cevg.com
20. Collaborative Fund (S/E) http://www.collaborativefund.com
21. Committed Capital (S/E) http://www.committedcapital.com/
22. Commons Capital (S/E, C/S) http://www.commonscapital.com/index.htm
    
23. Cowboy Ventures (C/S & T) http://cowboy.vc/index.html
24. Cutting Edge Capital (C/S) https://www.cuttingedgecapital.com
25. The Cycle Effect Regenerative Capital (CS, M, SE, T, W) https://www.cycleffect.earth
26. Designer Fund https://designerfund.com
27. DBL Partners (M & C/S) http://www.dblpartners.vc
28. Echoing Green (W, M, S/E) http://www.echoinggreen.org
29. Elevate Capital (S/E) http://elevate.vc
30. Enable Impact (S/E) http://www.enableimpact.com
31. Expansion Capital Partners (T) http://www.expansioncapital.com/index.php
32. Female Founders Fund (W) http://femalefoundersfund.com
33. Fenway Summer Ventures (T) http://fenwaysummer.com
34. Founder Collective (S/E) http://www.foundercollective.com
35. Foundry Group (T) https://www.foundrygroup.com/
36. Fresco Capital (C/S) http://www.fresco.vc
37. Funk Ventures (S/E & C/S) http://funkventures.com/venturecapital/
38. Global Good (S/E, C/S & T) http://www.intellectualventures.com/globalgood
39. Golden Seeds (W) http://www.goldenseeds.com
40. Harlem Capital Partners (M, T, W) https://harlem.capital
41. Homebrew (S/E) http://homebrew.co
42. Hudson Clean Energy (SE & T) http://www.hudsoncep.com/index.php
43. Illuminate Ventures (W) http://www.illuminate.com
44. Impact America Fund (SC, C/S, T) http://www.impactamericafund.com/
45. Impact Engine (S/E) https://www.theimpactengine.com
46. Incite Ventures (C/S) https://www.incite.org
47. Initialized Capital http://initialized.com
48. Intel Diversity Fund (W, M) http://www.intelcapital.com/advantage/diversity-fund.html
49. Investors Circle (S/E) http://www.investorscircle.net
50. Kapor Capital (S/E) http://www.kaporcapital.com
51. Koa Labs (S/E) http://koalab.com
52. Lux Capital (T) http://www.luxcapital.com
53. Mindfull Investors (S/E) http://mindfullinvestors.com
54. Mission Driven Capital Partners (CS/SE) https://www.missiondrivencp.com
55. Next Frontier Capital (S/E) http://www.nextfrontiercapital.com
56. Now Ventures (S/E & C/S) http://nowventures.co/
57. Obvious Ventures (S/E) https://obvious.com
58. Omidyar Network (S/E & C/S) https://www.omidyar.com
59. O’Reilly Alphatech Ventures (SE & T) http://oatv.com
60. Owl Ventures (SE & T) http://www.owlvc.com
61. Phenomenelle Angels Fund (W) http://www.phenomenelleangels.com
62. Pipeline Angels (W) http://pipelineangels.com
63. Plum Alley (F) https://plumalley.co
64. Precurser Capital (C/S) https://precursorvc.com
65. Radicle Impact (S/E) http://www.radicleimpact.com
66. Renewal Funds (C/S & S/E) http://www.renewalfunds.com
67. Rise of the Rest Seed Fund (C/S) https://www.revolution.com/entity/rotr/
68. Rivet Ventures (W) http://www.rivetventures.com
69. RSF Social Finance (S/E) http://rsfsocialfinance.org
70. SJF Ventures (S/E) http://sjfventures.com/
71. Social Capital S/E & T http://www.socialcapital.com
72. Social Leverage (T) https://www.socialleverage.com
73. Social Starts T https://www.socialstarts.com
74. Sogal Ventures (C/S & F) http://www.sogalventures.com
75. Sou Sou (W) http://banksousou.com
76. Stray Dog Capital (S/E) https://straydogcapital.com
77. Strugatz Ventures (S/E & C/S) http://www.strugatzventures.com
78. The Ecosystem Integrity Fund (S/E) https://ecosystemintegrity.com
79. The Builders Fund (C/S) http://www.thebuildersfund.com/
80. The Jump Fund (F) http://thejumpfund.com
81. The Rise Fund (S/E & C/S) http://therisefund.com
82. Uberis Capital (S/E) http://www.uberiscapital.com/
83. Unschackled (S/E & M) https://www.unshackledvc.com
84. Village Capital (SE & C/S) http://vilcap.com/
85. Vision Ridge Partners Sustainable Asset Fund (S/E) http://www.vision-ridge.com/sustainable-asset-fund/
86. Vulcan Capital (SE & C/S) http://capital.vulcan.com
87. Wave Equity Partners (S/E & T) https://waveep.com
88. White Road Investments (S/E) http://whiteroadinvestments.com
89. Women’s Venture Capital Fund (F) http://www.womensvcfund.com
90. 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.