Impact Engine

Our mission is to bring more capital to a market where financial returns are linked to positive social and environmental impacts. We manage funds for institutions and individuals that invest in for-profit, positive-impact businesses in private markets, and we bring community together in service of building the impact investing field.

Impact Engine was launched in 2012 as an accelerator fund with the goal of identifying promising entrepreneurs starting businesses with the potential to drive both attractive financial returns and positive social impact. Impact Engine raised two subsequent accelerator funds in 2013 and 2014, all focused on investing in pre-seed stage companies. Across the three accelerator funds, Impact Engine invested in a portfolio of 23 companies.

Between 2015 and 2016, Impact Engine shifted its investment strategy and raised a $10 million venture fund, which invested in 22 companies. Between 2018 and 2019, we began operating as a public benefit corporation, raised a $25M second venture fund, and raised a $31.5M first PE fund, allowing us to invest in impact funds for the first time.

We invest in business models that align financial and social or environmental impact returns such that there is minimal or no tradeoff between the two. Ideally, they mutually reinforce each other: the impact drives value creation in the business and the business growth brings the impact to scale. Specifically, we invest in three types of impact outcomes which we have found over the years to be the most well-aligned with this investment strategy: 

• Economic Opportunity - Improving educational outcomes and equity across the lifespan and improving access to higher quality jobs and affordable essential services, including financial products and housing (Explore portfolio)

• Environmental Sustainability - Better conservation and management of water, energy, carbon emissions, and waste (Explore portfolio)

• Health Equity - Improved outcomes and access to healthcare, particularly for underserved populations (Explore portfolio)

We invest across early and late stage private equity, allowing us to see the trajectories of companies and trends over the years, and we invest both directly into companies as well as into other impact funds. Investing in both companies and funds allows us to create synergies in the impact investing ecosystem, by supporting the creation of high-impact syndicates (to the benefit of both our company and fund portfolios) and bringing even deeper perspectives to our own understanding of each impact sub-sector and theme.