A YEAR IN REVIEW
The New Year often brings an opportunity for a fresh start: new goals, fresh ambitions and renewed hope for the year ahead. However, the memories of 2020 will last far beyond the turn of the calendar. The pandemic has disrupted our routines, taken away the livelihoods of so many, claimed the lives of ones we love and has forced us to rebalance our priorities. In times like these, we feel particularly grateful for everything that gives us hope and shows us that we can work through challenging situations if we come together as a community. This mindset of collectively working towards resolving a crisis was also reflected in 2020’s commitments from individuals, communities, corporations and governments to making life on our planet more sustainable. We’ve met with more impact-focused innovators than in previous years who remind us of the potential that exists to change the world for the better.
2020 was a pivotal year for our fund and despite all the challenges, we’re incredibly grateful for the growth that’s come. This year we have backed four new founders and supported our portfolio companies through a period of accelerated growth, new challenges and necessary pivots. We have added to our team, opened a new office and geared up to launch a bigger fund in early 2021. Overall, we look back on 2020 with a great sense of gratitude and pride. We feel extremely fortunate to do work we love with an impressive group of people around us, all while supporting some of the best founders the world has to offer. Thank you for joining us on this ride and we hope to see many more of you in-person this coming year. Here’s a brief look back on 2020:
Jan - Produced and released our 2019 annual report and launched a new program to engage external advisors.
Feb - Three portfolio companies concluded record breaking months in revenue growth, customer acquisition and Net Promoter Score.
Mar - Christina joined our team as an intern (and will now be an intern with one of our standout portfolio companies).
Apr - Chloe joined our team as an intern and we began formal thesis work on the coming sustainability revolution.
May - Investments number nine and ten in Solstice and CoInspect.
Jun - Follow-on investment in Clir.
Jul - Investment number eleven in SWTCH.
Aug - Signed the lease for our new office space.
Sep - Sam and Sophie joined the Active Impact team full time.
Oct - Two anchor investors committed to Fund II.
Nov - Follow-on investments in GoJava and ChopValue.
Dec - Follow-on investments in CoInspect and SWTCH and committed to our twelfth investment (stay tuned for announcement).
Although there's still a lot of uncertainty around how 2021 will unfold, we can’t help but feel optimistic about the months ahead and can’t wait to see what the next year has in store.