The female entrepreneur-focused social impact firm, which mainly invests at series A and B stage, secured university endowments as LPs for its second fund.
Multiple unnamed university endowments were yesterday revealed to have backed US-based venture capital firm Rethink Impact’s $182m second impact fund.
The fund has also pulled in contributions from financial institutions including UBS in addition to Pivotal Ventures, the investment firm founded by Melinda Gates, and philanthropic investment offices Ford Foundation and WK Kellogg Foundation.
Launched in 2016, Rethink Impact backs predominantly series A and B-stage businesses seeking to address global impact challenges in sectors such as health, environmental sustainability, education and economic empowerment.
The firm focuses on startups founded by female tech entrepreneurs in order to support gender diversity, with around 65% of contributions to the new fund coming from women.
Rethink Impact currently has almost $300m in assets under management and more than 25 startups in its portfolio.
The new fund aims to reinforce funding for female-led startups amid a coronavirus-driven trough in deal activity.
VC rounds for female-led businesses suffered a 40% year-on-year decline during the first quarter of 2020, according to deals database Pitchbook.
Rethink Impact’s women-founded shareholdings have included career upskilling business Guild Education, female investment platform Ellevest and caregiver training platform CareAcademy. The latter closed a $9.5m series A round with Rethink’s backing last month.
Unnamed UBS clients supplied more than 50% of Rethink’s first $110m social impact fund, closed in 2017 with further contributions from unnamed universities, family offices, private foundations and individuals.
Gates said: “When we look at the data, we know companies that embrace diversity are more creative and more profitable. Yet, the tech industry does not at all reflect the diverse communities we live in. This has to change.”
