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Founded in Washington DC in 2016, AV Ventures is co-founded by US not-for-profit organizations, the Agricultural Cooperative Development International and Volunteers in Overseas Cooperative Assistance.AV Ventures focuses on supporting SMEs that facilitate financing for farmers to improve sustainable supply chain management and boost social impact in Africa and Central Asia. Investments in tech startups include the $790,000 seed round of AgroCenta in January 2021. Through AV Frontiers in Bishkek, the VC also recently participated in April’s investment round of Kyrgyzstan-based ololoAkJol Resort, a hub for digital nomads, or independent remote workers.

Shell Foundation is the not-for-profit investment arm of the global energy giant Shell.  Based in London, the foundation was set up in 2000 to invest in social and environmental impact companies, including startups with the potential to reach out to over 10m low-income consumers and achieve financial viability within 10 years. The foundation mainly invests at the pre-seed and seed funding stage and currently has 77 startups in its portfolio. In January 2021, it joined the $790,000 seed round of African agritech social enterprise AgroCenta and also gave a $350,000 grant to sustainable mobility platform Easy Matatu in Uganda.

Based in Frankfurt, GreenTec Capital Partners is a German social impact investor that focuses on supporting African tech and non-tech startups. The VC plans to increase its investment portfolio to a total of 400 enterprises by 2023. Its current stake in 20 startups is estimated to be €32.5m. In 2020, GreenTec joined the pre-seed round of Nigerian online food cooperative Principally and seed round of Freshbag, a farmers’ marketplace in Cameroon. Recent investments also include AgroCenta’s seed funding in January 2021.

M Capital Partners is a leading private equity firm in the French small-cap market. It specializes in SME financing in the development and transmission phases. Based in Paris, the company has offices in Toulouse, Nice, Montepellier and Bordeaux. Founded 17 years ago, M Capital has €530m under active management. It is engaged in venture and capital investments, real estate, and impact investing. Recently it declared its aim to obtain the B Corp sustainability label, and created a foundation and several positive impact funds and moved to decarbonize its portfolio. 

A Cambridge-based investor, founded in 2006, that exists to support spin-off companies created at the city’s university with an emphasis on social impact.  It currently has 57 companies in its portfolio, almost entirely in the areas of life and physical sciences, which have, in total, raised over £2bn in further investment and grant funding.Its most recent investments include in the June 2021 £3m seed round of Gallium Nitride semiconductor engineering company Porotech and in the January 2021 $20m Series A round of quantum computing innovators Riverlane. 

Founded in 2018, Tilia Impact Ventures is the first social impact fund in the Czech Republic. Co-founding partner Silke Horáková has worked in private equity and is also a co-owner of Albatross Media. Co-founding partner Petr Vítek has worked for nine years as a Deloitte consultant. He is also co-founder of Impact Hub in Prague, Brno and Ostrava. Both have experience working in the social enterprise sector.  About 23 investors have contributed to the impact fund. Tilia plans to have 10 local social impact companies in its portfolio, each with an expected investment life of five to seven years. The VC has invested in four companies to date: smart vending SaaS platform MIWA Technologies, data-mining startup Datlab, ready-made spectacles supplier DOT glasses and waste-to-resource marketplace Cyrkl.

Founded in 2017 in Hong Kong, Happiness Capital invests in seed to growth stage companies in the US, Europe, Israel, and China, with a focus on issues affecting global happiness within the areas of citizen trust, food, health, climate change, and reduced inequalities. It hosts its own annual contest, the Super Happiness Challenge , a global open innovation contest to fund individuals and startups with ideas and new products or services that tapped into unmet needs to achieve happiness, with a possible $1m in total investment on offer. The VC currently has 37 startups in its portfolio, around half of which are in foodtech and agtech. Its most recent investments include leading the $4.7m July 2021 seed funding round of NovoNutrients, the US-based biotech producer of alt-protein from fermentation using CO2 and other emissions, and co-leading the $29m February 2021 Series A round of Israeli 3D printed alt-meat startup Redefine Meat.

Launched in 2015, the Stanford GSB Impact Fund invests globally in innovators and tech startups whether connected with the university or not and within the area of social impact in seven market segments: education, energy and the environment, fintech, food and agriculture, justice, healthcare, and urban development.  The university-owned fund invests from the pre-seed to Series A rounds and makes investments mostly from January to April. It currently has 11 startups in its portfolio. 

Founded in Amsterdam in 2014, Rubio Impact Ventures was formerly known as Social Impact Ventures. The VC currently invests in sustainability-focused startups that are predominantly based in the Netherlands and north-western Europe. It currently has 27 portfolio companies including fair coffee brand Wakuli and cultured meat pioneer Masa Meat. The “Rubicon crossing” VC has just raised €110m for its second impact fund, Rubio Fund 2, in October 2021.Recent investments include participation in the $43m Series B round of food-sharing app OLIO in September 2021 and the €3.6m seed round in July 2021 for Portuguese Arborea that uses micro-organisms in biotech for foodtech applications.

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