New fund set up to support ethical spin-outs

SOCIAL Investment Scotland (SIS) has joined forces with 12 universities across the UK to establish a fund that supports ventures motivated by benefiting society or the environment.

The 10-year, multimillion-pound Impact 12 fund aims to bring positive change to people and places by accelerating the development of “impact-led” social enterprises that spin out of universities, SIS said.

It will seek to realise its goals by providing finance tailored to the needs of these ventures, including equity investment and debt. Access to “missionaligned finance and impact support” will be offered.

The universities involved are Oxford, Cambridge, Northampton and Coventry and eight institutions comprising the MICRA Project – Aston, Birmingham, Cranfield, Keele, Leicester, Loughborough, Nottingham and Warwick.

Impact 12 will launch later this year, with an initial fundraising target of £8 million. It will be managed by SIS Ventures, a wholly-owned subsidiary of SIS, which invests in mission-driven businesses to help them grow and deliver social impact at scale.

Alastair Davis, chief executive of SIS, said: “At a time when global economies are still suffering the impacts of the pandemic, Impact 12 provides a new and exciting vehicle for helping to support and fund some of the very best mission-driven businesses spinning out of universities’ research labs and accelerators. While Scotland will always remain our core focus for connecting capital with communities, for SIS Ventures, this fund also marks a new opportunity to realise our ambition of entering new markets where we feel able to support impact creation.

“Through our collaboration with these twelve universities, we believe we can create considerable impact by supporting missionaligned businesses which have the potential to be the cornerstone of our economy in years to come.”