It's not often that a knight visits Toronto, but on Friday of last week that's exactly what happened as Sir Richard Branson came to town to co-announce a new partnership between his charity,
Virgin Unite, and MaRS.
The partnership will see Branson and company seed $1-million towards a new social impact investment fund that will be overseen by MaRS. An additional $500,000 is in the process of being added to fund by various individuals, companies and organizations. Once MaRS closes the fund sometime in the new year, Tim Jackson, lead executive at the Centre for Impact Investing at MaRS, says he expects it grow to somewhere between $3-million and $5-million.
According to Jackson, MaRS will use the fund to invest in early stage startups—that is, startups that are seeking seed or Series A funding—that are for-profit but have a component of social good as a part of their mandate. He listed companies like
SunFarmer and
Lucky Iron Fish as examples of the type of startups the fund will target. The latter, for instance, is a company that is attempting to solve iron deficiency in Cambodia.
“We’re trying to get rid of this mess that you have to decide between social good and return,” says Jackson, explaining the rationale behind the fund. “We believe that you can accomplish both, and we also view this as a demonstration fund.”
“Every entrepreneur that needs capital will tell you that there’s not enough capital, so while $3 to $5-million is not a lot of money, we think this fund will open up the wallets of other investors who will say I want to get into the impact investing space.”
For his part, Sir Richard Branson said in a press release after the event, “I strongly believe that entrepreneurs have a key role in tackling environmental and social issues with solutions that will last for the long run and help create jobs. Our partnership with MaRS will support inspiring entrepreneurs with the mentoring, training and investments they need to succeed.”
Source:
MaRS