Ada Ventures, a London, and Bristol, UK-based early-stage venture capital firm that invests in entrepreneurs with breakthrough ideas solving society’s biggest problems, reached a £36m first close of its second fund.
The investors in Ada Venture Fund II include: a cornerstone commitment from the British Business Bank through its Enterprise Capital Funds program, Plexo Capital, University of Edinburgh, and successful entrepreneurs and investors including Taavet+Sten and the Supercell co-founders.
Ada Ventures Fund II will focus on funding early-stage entrepreneurs who are solving some of society’s biggest problems, with a special focus on the climate, healthcare and ageing, and economic empowerment.
Overall, Ada’s Fund I has invested in 28 companies, including Hub, Organise, MOONHUB, SideQuest and Spill. The portfolio has raised an aggregate of £100m in additional investment, from firms including Mubadala, GV and Index Ventures.
Co-founded by Check Warner and Matt Penneycard, Ada Ventures also launched Ada’s Angels in October 2020, which was a project that sought to bring more diverse people into angel investing. The program identified five individuals from the Ada Scout network with direct experience in under-represented communities, who were given £50,000 to make five investments of £10,000. Since launch, the cohort has made 22 angel investments, 6 of which then raised funding from Ada Ventures.
Ada’s Angels second cohort will be more than double the size of the first and select angels from across the whole of the UK.
FinSMEs
04/10/2022