Human Impact Capital: A new €50 million fund launched by Redstone and EnjoyVenture to support social impact startups
New social impact VC fund Human Impact Capital has just been unveiled by Redstone and EnjoyVenture. It’s a pioneering social impact fund which will have €50 million to invest in startups actively addressing society’s biggest challenges.
From the rising cost of living to climate anxiety and from changing sociocultural perspectives and political roller coasters, there have been a number of challenges hitting the headlines.
Startups are a driving force in addressing challenges. Led by innovative, daring thinkers and pursuing agility in business approaches, startups are helping to create solutions to the world’s biggest challenges – and investors are backing these impact-driven ventures, seeing now that impact and profit go hand-in-hand.
As a result, there have been new funds targeting themes like sustainability and combating climate change appearing this year. And now, there’s one to target the social problems of our time: Human Impact Capital.
Tackling social challenges of our time
Launched by Redstone and EnjoyVenture, Human Impact Capital (HIC) is a newly launched €50m early-stage VC fund investing in digital business models actively addressing society’s biggest challenges. It was inspired by the belief that innovation is the key to overcoming these problems.
HIC’s investment strategy has been centred around five Sustainable Development Goals (No Poverty, Good Health and Wellbeing, Quality Education, Gender Equality, Reduced Inequalities) and three core verticals:
- HealthTech: Ensuring health care and protecting the ageing population
- Living: Increasing the quality of life and limiting loneliness
- EdTech: Ensuring access to qualitative education and reducing social inequalities
Entrepreneurs providing solutions to these problems will generate attractive financial returns for investors while advancing our society and laying the foundation for generations to come.
Fund structure
The fund is managed by experienced venture capitalists from Redstone and EnjoyVenture and advised by an exceptional board of advisors led by Prof. Dr. Harald Schmitz, CEO of Bank für Sozialwirtschaft, and Brigitte Zypries, former Federal Minister of Economics and Justice.
Among others, the fund’s anchor investors include Bank für Sozialwirtschaft, bringing deep social sector expertise to the table. In this respect, the bank contributed invaluable insights into the needs of the social sector and was closely involved in defining the fund’s investment strategy.
Leveraging its unique LP base, HIC aims to connect portfolio companies and established players from the social space to accelerate innovation. Even though the most urgent social problems have been evident before the pandemic, we are now living in a time where insufficiencies in our society (especially around health and education) can no longer be ignored.
Redstone and EnjoyVenture want to seize this momentum in making a contribution to a more sustainable future. The fund will actively measure the impact of its investments to ensure an efficient allocation of resources.
Based in Berlin with offices in Paris, Zurich and Helsinki, Redstone is a VC firm dedicated to digital innovation. It’s built up an impressive track record and portfolio over the years, combining its proprietary Data Platform with deep industry expertise across 10+ funds. In launching HIC, Redstone is doubling down on social impact.
EnjoyVenture, launched in 2000, is an entrepreneur-led investment company for Seed and Startup investments in innovative technology companies.
HIC is among the first funds in Europe to report according to Article 9 SFDR, which covers social and sustainable investments. HIC is hereby legally obliged to ensure that 100% of its investments are qualified as sustainable.
