Impact Investors

In recent years, impact startups have caught the attention of investors, accelerators, and the startup ecosystem at large. This is no surprise given global challenges such as poverty, inequality, racism, pollution, and climate change. With the support of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, a new generation of institutions has emerged whose investment theses explicitly support impact startups. 

Today, defining impact and measuring it can be somewhat challenging. However, with this roundup and the resources suggested at the end, we hope you’ll learn more about the topic.

What is an impact startup?

Learn about the definition of impact from Alberto Gómez Obregon, managing partner at Co_Capital, an impact-focused investment fund.

‍Investors backing impact startups

1. Deetken Impact.  Deetken Impact, formerly Adobe Capital. Deetken Impact specializes in impact investing – we make a positive social and environmental impact in the Americas.
2. IDB Lab. IDB Lab is the Venture Arm of the Inter-American Development Bank, the largest multilateral bank in Latin America and the Caribbean
3. Impacta VC. Impacta VC invests in impact startups in Latin America. Impacta VC launched a U$10MM Seed Fund in the US to fund tech companies aligned with the SDGs across LATAM that leverage the partner’s network of top regional founders and VCs to achieve future financing rounds in the impact space.
4. Amplifica Capital. Amplifica Capital invests in seed stage companies in LatAm to generate excellent returns, and to increase economic participation and opportunities for women.
5. IMPAQTO Capital. IMPAQTO Capital offers flexible capital to early-stage impact startups in the Andean Region, investing in Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Colombia with a focus on education, health, agroindustry and food supply chains, and clean tech.
6. Co_Capital. CO_Capital is a Latin American impact-first fund. We scale organizations that focus on reducing poverty, promoting gender equality or mitigating climate change – by investing across four themes: i) education and economic development; ii) access to health; iii) access to basic infrastructure; and iv) the nexus between agriculture and ecosystems.
7. Salkantay Ventures. Salkantay is a VC firm that creates value by collaborating with intrepid entrepreneurs, visionary investors and its allies to identify great ideas and transform them to succesful, innovative and sustainable companies.
8. Finca Ventures. FINCA Ventures is an early stage impact investor that invests in mainly Seed to Series A businesses in the agriculture, fintech and health sectors. We invest between $100K to $500K through convertible note, SAFE, or equity structures.
9. Kapor Kapital. Kapor Capital is a social impact venture capital firm. We are an Oakland-based fund that understands that startup companies have the ability to transform entire industries and to address urgent social needs as they do so.
10. Promotora Social México. Promotora Social México (PSM) is a venture philanthropy organization that supports social entrepreneurs’ initiatives aimed at improving the quality of life of the most disadvantaged members of society. We work in education, health, economic development, and early childhood development.
11. Accion. Accion Venture Lab provides capital and extensive support to innovative, scalable fintech startups that improve the reach, quality, and affordability of financial services for the underserved.
12. Yes Ventures. YES Ventures is an impact venture capital firm that invest in impact founders aligned with the SDGs accross Latam
13. Mountain Partners. Mountain Partners Green Fund is a Venture Capital fund 100% focused on climatech for Latam + USA.We decided to address environmental issues from where we know best and invest in ambitious founders that shape the future; We look for innovative and disruptive startups that directly or indirectly contribute to reducing the carbon footprint.
14. Maiz Ventures. Maiz Venture is a venture capital firm on a mission to shift LATAM climate change and health outcomes by investing in early stage, purpose driven Latin American startups.
15. Pampa Start VC. We are a VC born in Río Cuarto, Córdoba, the productive zone of soybean and corn par excellence in Argentina. Our General Partners going through different educations, experiences and converge in this venture capital company with the objective of being part of the solution to global challenges: feeding the world population. Generate transparency in production processes and impact with sustainability. 
16. New Ventures Capital. New Ventures Capital (NVC) is an impact-fund manager that invests in entrepreneurs with the most innovative market-based solutions and outsized potential to scale that tackle social and/or environmental gaps in emerging countries, targeting underserved populations.
17. ALIVE Ventures. Acumen Latam Impact Ventures – ALIVE – seeks to transform lives for low-income communities in Latin America (with a focus on Colombia and Peru) by investing in socially impactful companies that have profitable business models and require capital to grow. Over the course of each investment, ALIVE works closely with its investees to help scale their innovative solutions, tackling some of the most pressing challenges faced by the region's most vulnerable.
18. Flori Ventures. Flori Ventures is a seed-stage fund investing in top entrepreneurs that are using technology to tackle two of the most impactful challenges in emerging markets: Climate change and access to the financial system.
19. Savia Ventures. Savia Ventures. Empowering Latin America´s Climate-Tech Entrepreneurs. 

Accelerators supporting impact startups

1. AceleraLatam. At AceleraLatam, we’re a business accelerator focused on improving the performance of early-stage startups and ventures, both agnostically and with a focus on ClimateTech.
2. Village Capital. Village Capital helps entrepreneurs take big ideas from vision to scale. Our mission is to reinvent the system to support the entrepreneurs of the future.
3. IMPACTLATAM. IMPACTLATAM is an acceleration platform for impact ventures (economic, social, and environmental) in Latin America. We have a community of impact entrepreneurs of all types, sizes, and sectors, as well as an acceleration program focused on startups that use technology to solve social and/or environmental problems.
4. Unreazonable Mexico.  Unreasonable México, a social impact organization that seeks to solve problems through entrepreneurial and badass people.
5. Sancor Seguros Impulsa. We support, accompany, and invest in projects that address a social or environmental challenge or problem through innovation and creativity, setting them on a path to growth alongside Sancor Seguros and its network of suppliers and customers.
6. Socialab. We empower people and organizations to solve the world’s social and environmental challenges.

Institutions supporting impact startups

1. Impactus Ventures. Impactus Ventures is a social innovation platform whose purpose is to create a high-impact innovation ecosystem focused on early childhood in Latin America. We focus on improving the lives of children and adolescents by implementing successful, proven technological solutions.
2. Disruptivo.tv. We are the leading Spanish-language social entrepreneurship media outlet.
3. SVX. We amplify positive impact through education, market intelligence, consulting, and investment structuring, using innovative tools such as alternative finance, blended finance, and systems thinking.
4. Impact Hub. At Impact Hub, we make collaboration happen. We connect entrepreneurs and innovators to large organisations, partners, investors, and the public sector. Why? To build a more just and sustainable society.

Why invest in impact startups?

“Latin America is one of the most promising regions for startups, with close to US $20B raised in the region in 2021. Our focus is on driving solutions with high environmental impact potential and helping them access investment to mitigate the effects of climate change” Eugenio Cantuarias, Partner at AceleraLATAM.

In other words, leaving the world a little better than we found it—whether by improving the environment or people’s lives.

Selection criteria

The criteria used for this mapping were:

1. Thesis on Startuplinks. We started with the information the institution shared when registering on Startuplinks.
2. Thesis on the website. We made sure its website explicitly mentioned the word “impact” or similar terms.
3. Portfolio. We made sure its portfolio included startups that qualified as impact startups. 

Would you like to learn more about impact and startups? Here are some interviews from our podcast where we’ve talked with investors and founders.

• Co_Capital - Investing in companies with impact
• PSM - Investing in startups with social impact
• #26 Raising investment for impact startups | Kigüi & Milusos App