
Location: London, UK
Sector: Ai, Deeptech & Hardware
Ada Ventures is a pre-seed inclusive venture capital firm backing European founders building businesses for a better human future. Co-founded by Check Warner MBE and Matt Penneycard, Ada has £100m under management and is deploying its second fund.
Ada has two impact theses:
Systems Change thesis: Changing the way that venture capital is done which leads to investing in diverse founders. Influencing the industry to make it more inclusive.
Ada is leading a movement for rethinking the structure of venture capital from end to end: Inclusive Alpha®. This embeds inclusion in every part of the investment process, for best-in-class returns and impact. There are five stages to Inclusive Alpha®: Structure, Strategy, Sourcing, Selection and Support. For example, Structure refers to diversity and equitable pay amongst key decision makers. At Ada, 66% of the team is from a low-socio economic background, 50% are women and 50% are from ethnic minority backgrounds. 31% of carried interest recipients are women.
Portfolio Impact thesis: Investing in companies that target underserved end users and create positive social outcomes across climate equity, healthy ageing and economic empowerment.
As at October 2024, 79% of their portfolio companies were classified as ‘high’ or ‘medium’ impact in line with their impact assessment process. Their portfolio provides services reaching more than 5 million underserved people and 95% of the founders in Ada Ventures Fund II themselves have an underrepresented characteristic.
Taken from our FY25 Sustainability Report. Read more here.