Impact investing

According to a PitchBook report, global investors closed as many climate-focused funds in 2021 as were raised during the previous five years combined. Alumni Ventures Managing Partner Matt Caspari and Partner Erik Hammer spoke with Venture Capital Journal to discuss the influx of capital VCs are deploying into ClimateTech. They shared their thoughts on the profitability of climate-focused startups, consumer demand for sustainability, and the lessons investors and entrepreneurs alike have learned from companies like Tesla.

Persefoni has developed a SaaS platform to help organizations measure, analyze, plan, forecast, and report on their carbon footprint. The company leverages AI to provide businesses, financial institutions, and governmental agencies with a fully transparent and auditable picture of their carbon footprint, simplifying sustainability reports and regulatory disclosures.

In this video, Ron Levin of The Yard Ventures (AV’s fund for the Harvard community) is joined by sustainable aviation expert Robin Riedel to discuss the road to improving the environmental impacts of air transportation. Robin is a Partner at McKinsey & Company and an MIT alum.

The perception of impact investing has changed drastically over the past two decades. Once seen as a philanthropic investment thesis, ESG (environmental, social, and governance) assets are now projected to reach $53 trillion by 2025. This significant potential has prompted investors to write larger checks for ESG investments than ever before. Allocations for sustainable investments have increased 25x since 1995, with investors deploying $120 billion toward ESG investments in 2021. To learn how the space has changed and evolved over the past 20 years, we spoke to three of Alumni Ventures’ Senior Partners, each with accomplished backgrounds and experiences that demonstrate our organization’s ability to source promising ESG and impact opportunities.

Did you know that seven out of ten of the world’s largest companies, including Apple and Amazon, were venture capital-backed? 1 In addition to the iPhone, venture capital financing has led to the electric car, mRNA vaccine, and the search engine. So, it’s not a hyperbolic claim that venture capital has transformed our day-to-day lives.

For many investors, venture capital is about pursuing investments that will provide outsized returns AND align their portfolios with their values or beliefs. Savvy investors know helping entrepreneurs bring about positive change in the world is not mutually exclusive with making smart investments. Many lucrative opportunities exist in spaces where underrepresented entrepreneurs are aiming to solve some of the world’s most pressing issues. It’s this thesis that drives Alumni Ventures’ Impact Fund — doing well and doing good. For an in-depth explanation of the fund and its outlook, we spoke with Alumni Ventures’ Chief Investment Officer Anton Simunovic.

Once you’ve established a public market portfolio, adding alternative assets can be an attractive next step. Here’s a guide to understanding “alts” and how you might start investing.

With 25+ award categories, the Benzinga Global Fintech Awards recognizes outstanding companies from all over the fintech atmosphere. We are thrilled to announce that Alumni Ventures’ was awarded first place in Best Alternative Investments Platform alongside top-notch companies — Groundfloor (2nd Place) and Vinovest (3rd Place). Check below to watch the full awards ceremony.

Promising seed-stage opportunities exist where talented innovators intersect with cutting-edge technology. Our team monitors a diverse spectrum of industries to identify nascent companies as they emerge. Options can range from a Midwest agtech company to an East Coast crypto fintech. We leverage Alumni Ventures’ network of 50+ investing professionals and exclusive community of more than 600,000 members to source these types of high-potential, early-stage investments. Below is a sample of exciting sectors and emerging verticals that we’re following as we source promising opportunities for this year’s Seed Fund.