In the UK, most of the social impact capital is concentrated in London. However, a new consortium of 12 top universities is trying to change this with the newly announced Impact Investment Fund. The ten-year fund, called Impact 12, will support social projects by students and employers in and around these universities.
“It’s part of a plan to build new infrastructure outside of London,” said Mark Mann, head of the Social Venture Lead and Innovation Lead for the Humanities and Social Sciences at Oxford University Innovation. Oxford University leads the consortium.
The effort began about three years ago when Mann got to talk to colleagues at the University of Warwick and the University of Birmingham about innovation in their schools, the growth of impactful startups, and the role universities can play.
However, over past five years or so, more and more startups are being led by missions. “We see a trend towards that goal,” said Alastair Davis, CEO of Social Investment Scotland (SIS). This conversation led to the realization that schools needed new funding that focused solely on social efforts and providing ways to share resources and work together. They also decided that it was essential to making efforts to attract people outside London to social investment.
Include social mission
Then they turned to the University of Cambridge and eventually Northampton, Coventry, and the universities involved in the MICRA project; In addition to Birmingham and Warwick, these include Aston, Cranfield, Kiel, Leicester, Loughborough, and Nottingham. The Oxford MBA group then worked on the fund’s business plan project.
Impact 12 is managed by SIS Ventures, a wholly-owned subsidiary of SIS, which provides tools and investments for enterprise-oriented enterprises. Fundraising efforts are focused on the alumni network and the broader investment community.
In addition, Davis said the fund would take steps to “anchor the organization’s social mission in the company’s DNA” so that companies cannot change their social mission as they grow without permission from leading investors.