Fund I
Our initial venture fund for Access Ventures focused on capacity building through tech, financial services, and impact-minded enterprises.
Overview
Venture investing has been a part of our deployment strategy since almost day 1 at Access Ventures. In order to build a more inclusive and creative economy, it’s important to fund and work directly with entrepreneurs building companies that do just that.
From 2014 until early 2019, our venture investments through our first fund focused in three key areas:
- Financial Inclusion: Traditional banking and financial services exclude millions of individuals and small businesses and inclusion in these financial systems leads to greater individual, family, and community stability. Therefore, we invest in companies that improve access to equitable capital, financial services, and the distribution of funds beyond traditional means.
- Technology for Social Good: Through technology, we can improve the efficiency and effectiveness of social services, and subsequently, allow for more funding to go directly into the communities being served. However, technology solutions for nonprofits tend to fall behind those of it’s for-profit counterparts. Therefore we invest in technologies that build capacity for the nonprofit sector.
- Impact-Minded Enterprises: Business is not simply about profit, but it should consider its impact on people and place. Therefore, we invest in companies that demonstrate this mindset by meeting the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability.
Our Fund I Investments
We focus on building the capacity of organizations dedicated to improving the lives of the marginalized. We invest in technology to bolster the effectiveness of the social sector; provide capital to business models that address obstacles to employment; and, work to increase financial services available to the most vulnerable.
In early 2019, we stepped back and determined we needed to more specifically focus our venture thesis. We developed what is our current focus, blockchain technologies. We believe blockchain is THE technology for social good and once adoption is met, can drastically improve the world around us and lead to greater participation for more people. While we are not actively investing further through Fund 1, we are still supporting these entrepreneurs and continuing to follow-on as it makes sense.
Check out our blockchain page to learn more about our current venture strategy.