IMP Matrix Rating: C4

What: Ananda Impact Ventures III is a VC fund investing at seed to early growth-stage companies primarily in Germany and the UK with a strong focus on secular social trends such as ageing, flexible work, education, inclusion, health, and sustainable consumption.

Who: Key beneficiaries are vulnerable populations across Europe, such as the elderly in need of care and companionship; children with disabilities or special learning needs; cancer, rare disease and other medical patients, etc. Sometimes it can be the environment via eco-friendly solutions such as EV charging points.

How Much Impact: The fund does not produce aggregate portfolio impact reporting. However, some level of basic output reporting is available for individual investee companies. For example, care companies such as HomeTouch and CareShip (now bankrupt, a victim of the COVID pandemic) have provided in excess of 400,000 hours of care to the elderly, combined. Open Bionics has provided more than 180 bionic arms to children with limb impairments.

Our Contribution: We provided additional capital for the fund to reach its target size.

Impact Risk: The main risk with respect to the impact of Ananda’s companies, is that they don’t succeed in the commercialization of their business model, and therefore cannot reach and serve the target beneficiary populations. From an investment risk perspective, exit potential for these companies is more limited than in other impact sectors such as environmental technologies, and therefore the fund will have to work harder to generate financial returns as well as to ensure that the impact rationale is preserved upon sale of the portfolio companies.

Sample Investment: Caspar Health, a platform to enable people to regain and maintain their independence after an illness or accident.