Free database shows impact venture capital funds around the world
2 March 2021 at 6:10 pm
Advocates say the resource will be useful for impact founders and those looking to work for an impact venture fund
An open source database of the world’s impact venture capital funds has been created, hoping to help grow Australia’s impact startup ecosystem by connecting impact founders with investors.
The database was unveiled by Giant Leap Fund – Australia’s first venture capital (VC) fund fully dedicated to investing in impact startups – as a teaser for an upcoming benchmarking report set to be launched in coming weeks.
More than 480 active funds have been identified so far by reviewing data sources such as Pitchbook and Crunchbase.
Giant Leap Fund investment analyst Charlie Macdonald told Pro Bono News they were inspired to create the database after they struggled to find a resource like this that wasn’t behind a paywall.
“We created this because we think that more impact resources lead to more impact founders, and that’s something that we obviously want to see,” Macdonald said.
“It was something that we wanted to put out to market. So that was the driving force behind doing the research.”
Macdonald said this resource would be useful for impact founders who are looking for VC that fits with their business.
He said it would also suit people who want to work for an impact venture fund, as it offered an easy directory to go to when job hunting.
But he added that the current database was far from a finished product.
“At the moment it’s basically version 1.0 where we’re putting it out to the community and getting their engagement to help us to complete it, because we will never be the only piece of the puzzle here,” Macdonald said.
“And then database 2.0 could be something along the lines of actually showing which VCs focus on which specific impact areas.”
While Australia’s impact startup ecosystem is currently a very small piece of the global impact startup community, Macdonald believes Australian startups have shown incredible resilience recently, especially amid the COVID-19 crisis.
“In general, we’ve seen an incredible upswell in the amount of interest in impact VC from our community,” he said.
“The impact benchmark report we release will put some figures to that, because it’s part of our ongoing efforts to hold ourselves accountable to our mission to grow this ecosystem by proving that financial returns and impacts don’t have to be mutually exclusive.
“They really can work together in unison.”
You can see the database here.
