The $80 million (£63 million) final close of a new investment fund focused on varied impact entrepreneurs has been announced by venture capital company Ada Ventures.
Ada Ventures will invest between £250,000 and £1.5 million through the fund in pre-seed to seed-stage companies.
The company intends to invest ten to twelve times a year in areas including healthy aging, economic empowerment, and climate equality.
Through its second fund, Ada Ventures has now invested in 12 companies, including the VR training platform Moon Hub and the child labor tracking startup HACE.
Check Warner, a co-founding partner of Ada Ventures, said, “We’ve worked incredibly hard over the last five years to develop the systems and processes to turn our ambition to build a truly diverse and inclusive fund into reality.”
“Strong returns are strongly correlated with inclusive investment. We want other funds to copy this blueprint. The excuse that diverse talent isn’t ‘out there’ is a cop-out.”
The British Business Bank, the University of Edinburgh, Big Society Capital, Legal & General Capital, Atomico, the Export and Investment Fund of Denmark (EIFO), and Molten Ventures have all contributed money to the new fund.
“Diverse teams drive growth and better outcomes, and Ada Ventures’ inclusive approach is targeting the emerging cohort of startups who are developing innovative solutions for society’s greatest challenges,” said Chris Hopkins, managing director, of venture capital at Legal & General Capital
“We are pleased to have invested in Ada Venture’s second fund and support their wider investment strategy to broaden out access to capital and address the lack of diversity within the UK & European VC ecosystem.”
The Illusian, the family office of Supercell CEO Ilkka Paananen, and Wise’s Taavet Hinrikus were among the initial investors who took part in the fund in addition to the institutional backers.
Ada Ventures introduced its second iteration of its angel investment program with a regional focus last year.