Investing in Impact | Impact Investing

This content is for informational and entertainment purposes only, you should not construe any such information or other material as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.----------------------------------------In this solo episode of Investing in Impact, host Grant Trahant spotlights SOSV, a global venture capital firm backing deep-tech founders at the earliest stages of company creation.SOSV invests in technologies designed to improve human and planetary health, including climate technology, biotechnology, advanced materials, robotics, diagnostics, therapeutics, energy, food systems, and sustainable manufacturing.What makes the firm particularly interesting is that it offers founders more than capital. Through programs such as HAX, SOSV San Francisco, and SOSV New York, entrepreneurs gain access to laboratories, engineering support, specialized equipment, company-building expertise, and a global investor network.This model helps founders cross one of the most difficult gaps in venture capital: turning a scientific discovery or engineering breakthrough into a commercially viable company.In This EpisodeWhy deep-tech startups require a different investment modelHow SOSV invests at the pre-seed stage, often writing a founder’s first institutional checkWhy laboratories, equipment, and engineering support can matter as much as capitalHow HAX supports hard-tech, robotics, energy, manufacturing, and physical AI companiesHow IndieBio evolved into SOSV San Francisco and SOSV New YorkWhy SOSV reserves significant capital for follow-on investmentsHow the firm approaches human and planetary health as an investment thesisThe technical, regulatory, and commercialization risks involved in deep-tech investingWhat impact investors can learn from SOSV’s company-building modelSOSV at a Glance$1.5 billion in assets under management$306 million in SOSV Fund VApproximately 800 active portfolio companies$7.3 billion raised by active portfolio companies$18.2 billion in combined portfolio valuation60 percent of Fund V allocated to follow-on investingHAX investment packages of up to $550,00010 percent of the firm’s carried interest committed to charityExplore SOSV:https://sosv.com/View the SOSV portfolio:https://sosv.com/portfolio/Learn about SOSV’s locations and founder programs:https://sosv.com/locations/Discover the SOSV Deep Tech 100:https://sosv.com/deep-tech-100/ ----------------------------------------Investing in Impact is powered by Causeartist, a nonprofit media company dedicated to bridging the gap between capital and culture by spotlighting founders, investors, and organizations reimagining how business can serve people and the planet.Through storytelling, events, and open-access education, Causeartist helps create a shared language of impact, inspiring more founders to build with purpose and more funders to invest with intention.By amplifying ideas and innovations across industries, Causeartist transforms awareness into action and cultivates a community where paying it forward is part of the foundation for growth.

This content is for informational and entertainment purposes only, you should not construe any such information or other material as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.----------------------------------------In this solo episode of Investing in Impact, host Grant Trahant explores how Echoing Green identifies and supports social entrepreneurs before their success becomes obvious.Founded in 1987, Echoing Green has helped launch more than 1,000 social innovators, including leaders connected to Teach For America, Last Mile Health, One Acre Fund, City Year, and other influential organizations.Its approach goes beyond providing a grant. Echoing Green combines early-stage capital with leadership development, expert guidance, well-being support, and lifelong access to a global community of social entrepreneurs.The organization’s latest fellowship cycle shows both the demand for this type of support and the growing capital gap facing early-stage impact founders. Echoing Green received more than 4,100 applications from 139 countries for its 2026 Fellowship, but selected only 18 entrepreneurs. Each Fellow receives $100,000 in seed funding over 18 months.In This EpisodeHow Echoing Green identifies promising founders before traditional investors doWhy proximity to a problem can be more valuable than a polished business planHow the Fellowship combines capital, capacity building, and communityWhy 53 percent of 2026 applicants had not raised any outside fundingWhat Echoing Green’s applicant data reveals about the global social impact pipelineHow recoverable grants can support early-stage for-profit social enterprisesHow follow-on funding and the Signal Fund create a broader continuum of capitalWhy the first check is often the most important and difficult capital to secureWhat impact investors can learn from Echoing Green’s approach to evaluating overlooked foundersKey FiguresMore than 4,100 applications received for the 2026 Fellowship139 countries represented18 social entrepreneurs selected$100,000 in seed funding for each Fellow18 months of fellowship supportMore than 1,000 Fellows supported throughout Echoing Green’s history53 percent of 2026 applicants had not previously raised funding54 percent of applications came from AfricaSignal Fund investments range from $100,000 to $500,000The Bigger TakeawayEchoing Green’s model challenges the impact investing community to reconsider how potential is evaluated.If investors only support organizations after they have proven revenue, assembled experienced teams, and produced years of impact data, they are not funding the earliest stage of innovation. They are funding the organizations that managed to survive it.Echoing Green shows what it looks like to invest earlier, assess founders beyond traditional credentials, and support leaders with more than a single check. Its work is built around a simple but important belief: talent is everywhere, even when access to opportunity and capital is not.Learn MoreVisit Echoing Green to explore its Fellowship, meet its newest Fellows, and learn more about its approach to supporting social entrepreneurs. ----------------------------------------Investing in Impact is powered by Causeartist, a nonprofit media company dedicated to bridging the gap between capital and culture by spotlighting founders, investors, and organizations reimagining how business can serve people and the planet.Through storytelling, events, and open-access education, Causeartist helps create a shared language of impact, inspiring more founders to build with purpose and more funders to invest with intention.By amplifying ideas and innovations across industries, Causeartist transforms awareness into action and cultivates a community where paying it forward is part of the foundation for growth.

This content is for informational and entertainment purposes only, you should not construe any such information or other material as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.----------------------------------------In this solo episode of Investing in Impact, Grant Trahant spotlights Access Ventures, an impact investor using catalytic capital, blended finance, and a one-pocket mindset to support economic prosperity, social equity, and environmental sustainability.Access Ventures approaches investing by asking what prevents people from participating fully in the economy and where flexible capital can unlock opportunities that conventional markets overlook. Rather than forcing every challenge into the same investment structure, the organization uses different forms of capital based on what the problem requires.The episode explores how catalytic capital can absorb early risk, fund experimentation, and help make opportunities investable for additional participants. It also examines blended finance, which combines tools such as grants, flexible investments, guarantees, and market-rate capital to address complex challenges.Grant also discusses Access Ventures’ one-pocket mindset, which encourages investors to evaluate their entire portfolio through both a financial and an impact lens instead of separating wealth creation from philanthropy.Examples Featured in the EpisodeGoodMaps is an indoor navigation company backed by Access Ventures. Its technology uses LiDAR scanning and camera-based positioning to provide spoken, visual, and haptic turn-by-turn directions inside complex buildings. The platform is designed to make airports, transit hubs, museums, and other public spaces easier to navigate, particularly for people with disabilities.The Growth Loan Fund was designed by Access Ventures to serve small-business owners who could not qualify for capital through traditional underwriting. The fund offered non-collateralized loans of up to $35,000, demonstrating how a flexible financial product can address a specific gap in a local economy.Together, these examples show the range of the Access Ventures model: investing in scalable technology while also creating new financing structures for people and businesses underserved by conventional markets.In This EpisodeWhat catalytic capital is and when it can be most usefulHow blended finance combines different forms of capitalWhy every social challenge should not be forced into the same financial instrumentWhat Access Ventures means by a one-pocket mindsetHow GoodMaps uses technology to improve accessibilityHow the Growth Loan Fund expanded access to small-business capitalWhy impact measurement must move beyond dollars deployedHow investors can support access, agency, and community resilienceThe questions impact investors should ask about risk, returns, and community influenceKey TakeawayCapital is most powerful when it is used with intention, creativity, and patience. Financial resources can remove barriers and create opportunity, but lasting transformation happens when people gain greater access, greater agency, and a meaningful role in shaping their own economic future.Learn MoreAccess VenturesAccess Ventures PortfolioInvesting in ImpactIf you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to Investing in Impact and share it with someone interested in using capital as a force for positive change. ----------------------------------------Investing in Impact is powered by Causeartist, a nonprofit media company dedicated to bridging the gap between capital and culture by spotlighting founders, investors, and organizations reimagining how business can serve people and the planet.Through storytelling, events, and open-access education, Causeartist helps create a shared language of impact, inspiring more founders to build with purpose and more funders to invest with intention.By amplifying ideas and innovations across industries, Causeartist transforms awareness into action and cultivates a community where paying it forward is part of the foundation for growth.

This content is for informational and entertainment purposes only, you should not construe any such information or other material as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.----------------------------------------This episode of Investing in Impact is a little different from the conversations I usually have on the show.Social Leverage is not an impact investing firm in the traditional sense. It is a seed stage venture capital firm investing primarily in fintech, financial infrastructure, wealth technology, and vertical AI.But impact does not always fit neatly inside an impact investing label.Capital allocation shapes which companies get built, which founders get opportunities, where wealth is created, and what happens after successful entrepreneurs and employees gain experience, relationships, and financial resources.That idea became one of the most interesting parts of my conversation with Matt Ober, Managing Partner at Social Leverage.Matt described a flywheel the firm sees repeatedly across its network: a founder builds a company, eventually has an exit, and later returns to their hometown or another community where they want to build a life. They begin mentoring and supporting other entrepreneurs.Those entrepreneurs build companies of their own, and some eventually become new investment opportunities.Successful companies can create much more than financial returns for investors.They can create wealth for employees, produce experienced founders and operators, build networks, and recycle knowledge and capital back into communities and future companies.That broader definition of impact is what makes this conversation particularly interesting.Matt brings a unique perspective to the discussion. Before joining Social Leverage, he worked at Bloomberg, led data strategy at quantitative hedge fund WorldQuant, helped launch WorldQuant Ventures, and later served as Chief Data Scientist at Third Point.Today, he invests at the earliest stages of companies building across fintech and AI.In our conversation, we explore how Social Leverage evaluates founders, why venture investing is still fundamentally about people despite the rise of data and AI, and how technologies like AI are changing the economics of building companies.We also discuss several Social Leverage portfolio companies, including Fiscal AI, Slash Experts, and SyntheticFi, the evolution of wealth management technology, agentic trading, the role of financial advisors in an AI driven world, and why the next generation of professionals will need to become deeply proficient with AI.At its core, this conversation is about how capital, technology, entrepreneurship, and networks compound over time, and how the effects of a successful company can extend far beyond the original investment. ----------------------------------------Investing in Impact is powered by Causeartist, a nonprofit media company dedicated to bridging the gap between capital and culture by spotlighting founders, investors, and organizations reimagining how business can serve people and the planet.Through storytelling, events, and open-access education, Causeartist helps create a shared language of impact, inspiring more founders to build with purpose and more funders to invest with intention.By amplifying ideas and innovations across industries, Causeartist transforms awareness into action and cultivates a community where paying it forward is part of the foundation for growth.

This content is for informational and entertainment purposes only, you should not construe any such information or other material as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.----------------------------------------In this bonus episode Investing in Impact, we showcase a crossover episode from our Disruptors for Good podcast. On this episode, we speak with Lindsay Hadley, founder and CEO of Harbor Fund, about building a new financing model for films designed to influence culture and create social impact.Harbor Fund is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that uses philanthropic donations to invest in socially meaningful films. Rather than funding a single project through a traditional grant, Harbor Fund takes an equity position in selected productions. When a film generates a financial return, that capital flows back into the fund and can be invested in future projects.The result is an evergreen model that combines philanthropy, impact investing, and independent film financing.Lindsay shares how her 20-year career in nonprofit fundraising led her into filmmaking, why scripted narratives can sometimes create more cultural influence than documentaries, and what Harbor Fund looks for when evaluating hundreds of film submissions.She also discusses the difficult state of the entertainment industry, the importance of established talent and strong intellectual property, and why commercial viability is a critical part of Harbor Fund’s impact thesis. ----------------------------------------Investing in Impact is powered by Causeartist, a nonprofit media company dedicated to bridging the gap between capital and culture by spotlighting founders, investors, and organizations reimagining how business can serve people and the planet.Through storytelling, events, and open-access education, Causeartist helps create a shared language of impact, inspiring more founders to build with purpose and more funders to invest with intention.By amplifying ideas and innovations across industries, Causeartist transforms awareness into action and cultivates a community where paying it forward is part of the foundation for growth.