Social Investment Scotland (SIS) has announced a partnership with 12 leading universities to create the Impact 12 investment fund, which aims to support “mission-led” university ventures.

The fund, managed by SIS Ventures, a subsidiary of SIS, is aiming to support university ventures motivated by beneficial social or environmental impact, rather than focusing solely on profit.

Impact 12’s aim is to bring “positive change” by accelerating the development and success of impact-led social ventures spun out of universities. It will support social ventures with innovative finance tailored to their needs, including equity investment and debt. Additionally the fund will provide access to “expert mission-aligned finance and impact support”.

Commenting on the Impact 12 investment fund, Alastair Davis, CEO 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 mission-aligned businesses which have the potential to be the cornerstone of our economy in years to come.”

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Impact 12 will tap into the growing interest in impact investing and the rise of social enterprise strategies within universities. It will fundraise among alumni networks as well as the wider impact investor community.

With mission-driven companies increasingly out-performing more traditional business models, funding from Impact 12 will help meet a clear need for early-stage finance among university social ventures, which often lack the financial support of traditional university spinouts or start-ups.

Professor Stephen J Toope, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge said: “Cambridge is proud to join forces with sister universities to launch Impact 12, a powerful partnership for social ventures to expand their networks and scale up their work.

“The social ventures supported by our 12 universities will be at the forefront of creating change and finding solutions to support the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.”

The fund will launch later this year with an initial fundraising target of £8 million. The capital raised will be deployed to support up to fifteen social ventures from across the partner universities, with both seed and follow-on funding over the next ten years.