{"id":38949,"date":"2023-10-20T14:59:53","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T14:59:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/13-million-vc-fund-for-impact-driven-startups-launches-with-official-opening-of-the-dream-factory-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T14:59:53","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T14:59:53","slug":"13-million-vc-fund-for-impact-driven-startups-launches-with-official-opening-of-the-dream-factory-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/13-million-vc-fund-for-impact-driven-startups-launches-with-official-opening-of-the-dream-factory-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"$13 million VC fund for impact-driven startups launches with official opening of The Dream Factory – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Melbourne’s new $14 million\u00a0co-working space The Dream Factory is officially open for business, and with its launch comes a $13 million venture capital fund dedicated entirely to startups with social or environmental purpose.<\/p>\n

This week, Impact Investment Group (IIG) unveiled its\u00a0$13 million VC fund dedicated entirely to startups driven to make a difference<\/a> with their profits.<\/p>\n

The Giant Leap VC fund, which targets a 20% internal rate of return per annum, will invest in late-seed to early series-A level startups addressing challenges like people\u2019s health and wellbeing, empowerment and sustainable living.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the first of it\u2019s kind in Australia,\u201d Impact Investment Group chief investment officer Will Richardson tells StartupSmart<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Hear more on the Starting Change podcast: How to turn profit into real-world impact<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

IIG was looking to raise $10 million for the fund but the oversubscribed round indicates a growing confidence among investors to back new impact-driven ventures, he says.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, Impact Investing Australia found that there is an estimated $18 billion in pent-up demand<\/a> for impact investing.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a real turning point,\u201d says Richardson.<\/p>\n

Giant Leap will be led by venture partners Peter Cameron, who is the chief executive of AVG Anti Virus Australia and New Zealand; Kylie Charlton, Australian Impact Investments\u2019 chief information officer and co-founder of Unitus Capital; and angel investor Adam Milgrom.<\/p>\n

Prominent Silicon Valley investor Susan Wu<\/a> and other heavyweights will sit on the advisory board.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe that the most successful businesses are the ones that make money by doing good, and they are the ones we are going after,\u201d Richardson says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe tide is turning on business that comes at the expense of society or the planet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Victoria\u2019s minister for small business and innovation Philip Dalidakis attend the launch held at\u00a0Dream Factory in Footscray.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot only will this money help our startup ecosystem but it will help those that are dedicated to making our world better for everyone,\u201d Dalidakis said.<\/p>\n

Giant Leap’s first investments<\/h3>\n

Ahead of its launch, Giant Leap participated in a $5 million investment deal with Sendle<\/a>, a parcel delivery platform committed to 100% carbon neutral delivery for \u201cgood businesses\u201d.<\/p>\n

It also recently invested $500,000 into online grocery YourGrocer.<\/p>\n

Richardson says the fund backed these startups for their highly scalable business models, strong growth, exceptional management teams and commitment to making profit at the benefit of their communities.<\/p>\n

Sendle facilitates 40,000 deliveries a month without adding any additional trucks to the road, he says, while YourGrocer helps small businesses like local green grocers compete against larger supermarkets.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re open for business and looking for amazing founders and teams to back in the impact space,\u201d says Richardson.<\/p>\n

\u201c[They] can be anywhere in Australia, we can actually invest internationally as well but we want to support the Australian ecosystem.\u201d<\/p>\n

Follow StartupSmart on<\/em>\u00a0Facebook<\/a>,<\/em>\u00a0Twitter<\/a>,\u00a0LinkedIn<\/a>\u00a0and iTunes<\/a>. \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Melbourne’s new $14 million\u00a0co-working space The Dream Factory is officially open for business, and with its launch comes a $13<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61476,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,26],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38949"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38949"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38949\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}