Co-founders of impact investment firm Unitus have floated what they claim to be the first global business accelerator for impact venture capital firms. Managed by Capria Ventures, the accelerator aims to provide capital, warehousing of initial investments, tools, training, technical know-how, fundraising support, investment support, and opportunities for peer learning through connection to a growing global network of impact fund managers.
Capria, which is based in Seattle, seeks to support new fund managers backing early-stage startups primarily in South and Southeast Asia, Africa and Latin America.
Unitus Seed Fund, an active venture seed fund investing in India startups, will be a founding member of Capria.
Capria is the newest venture for Will Poole and Dave Richards, co-founders of Unitus Seed Fund. David Riley, a specialist in fund formation, structuring, analysis and review, has also joined Poole and Richards to found the venture.
“Current trends indicate that over the next decade, there will be hundreds of early-stage impact funds set up across the globe,” said Richards, Capria’s co-founder and managing partner, adding that Capria will help them get to market up to a year faster with lower risks and higher investor confidence.
Capria Accelerator’s initial expert advisers includes David Chen: founder and CEO, Equilibrium Capital; Bill Hughlett: CFO, Voyager Capital; Eric Savage: co-founder and CEO, Unitus Capital; Ross Baird, executive director, Village Capital; Atul Bindal, former partner, Khosla Ventures; Lucho Torres, director, Angel Ventures Peru; and Ann Short, COO, Unitus Capital.
Since 2000, Unitus Labs alumni have launched three venture firms (Elevar Equity, Unitus Impact and Unitus Seed Fund) and an investment bank (Unitus Capital).
In 2012, Unitus supported and invested to launch Unitus Seed Partners, a new impact venture capital firm. It raised a $23 million fund, Unitus Seed Fund, with leadership investors including Bill Gates, Steve Singh, Vinod Khosla, Desh Deshpande, Romesh Wadhwani, TV Mohandas Pai, Hemendra Kothari, and multiple private foundations led by the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation and The Lemelson Foundation. Unitus Seed Fund has invested in 18 Indian startups in healthcare, education, mobile consumer, retail and more.