Ada Ventures, Two Years In
Check and I launched Ada Ventures, a £38M VC fund that invests in overlooked founders and markets, on the 11th December 2019, almost exactly two years ago to the day. To say its been an amazing ride so far would be a huge understatement for both of us. This role in this firm is the ultimate professional privilege I can imagine. Ada Ventures exists to serve the underserved: the founders and markets that might shine brightest if they only had access to capital.
Here’s a recap on the last 12 months (the second 12 months!) at Ada:
· We reviewed, analysed and recorded over 1,300 companies through our pipeline, bringing our total recorded deals to just over 2,300. Of those who provided us with the information (80%), 56% had a founder who identified as female or as non-binary.
· We have invested in an additional 16 companies, bringing our total fund 1 portfolio to 24 companies. Building on last year’s themes, our companies are led by incredible founders working on the boldest ideas to help tackle global problems, now including: impact investing, mental health for marginalised groups, ageing joyfully, accessible dentistry and sustainable fashion.
· Of these 24 companies, 5 were referrals from within our scout network and 13 have at least 1 female founder.
· We have an overall Landscape score of 4.7. Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to review us — if you are a founder whom we’ve interacted with, we would love to hear your thoughts.
· We developed our rolling Venture Partner programme, through which we have been honoured to work with the amazing Kelly McDaid, Michael Tefula, Kate Glazebrook, Bola Adegbulu, Alasdair Thong, Isaac Teng and Ahmed Medhat. These brilliant people have supported us in a range of ways, including managing our scout community, developing impact frameworks for our companies, diversity, equity and inclusion support and bringing challenge and new ideas to our investment process.
· Our Head of Operations (and our first hire!), Xun, joined us in June 2021. Dan, our current Analyst On Placement, joined us in October 2021 as part of the On Purpose program.
· We have been truly fortunate to continue to work with our amazing Steering Group consisting of the most insightful and supportive in the business: Michelle Ashworth in the UK, Marta Sjögren in Sweden, Charles Hudson in SF, and Ed Zimmerman in NY.
As part of our commitment to Open Venture, we have:
· Published Medium posts about why we have invested in the companies that have been publicly announced.
· Our scout network has grown to almost 100 scouts, each having access to an underrepresented group. Our scouts are mission-aligned and each receive a financial incentive for any referrals made to us: so far, we have paid £25,000 in scout referral fees on the investments we have made, each of which also shares in the carried interest on those investments.
· Our first-of-its-kind Ada’s Angels programme is going brilliantly, with around £170,000 of investments made so far. Our second Angel program will launch next year with our second fund, so watch this space if you’re interested.
· We continued to develop partnerships with organisations which seek to amplify the voices of the underrepresented within venture (for example SV2UK’s Beyond HERizons program), and to educate and inspire others to get involved in entrepreneurship (for example the Stemettes).
· For the first time, we opened AdaCon, our annual celebration of overlooked talent, to the public, exploring the theme of Hungry for Change: Activism and why we need it in the UK Tech Industry. Thank you to the hundreds of you who attended and to our incredible panellists who made the conference such a JOY to host. We were particularly delighted and honoured to have Dame Stephanie Shirley CH be our keynote speaker — if you missed it, this video summarises the highlights!
· As the world opened up, we have loved spending more time with our community — including, spending time with our community in Birmingham, hosting Scout drinks at Hyde Park in the Summer (pictured below!), meeting founders in Belfast and attending SuperVenture in Berlin.
· Building on last year’s progress, we became certified at Level 2 of the Diversity VC Standard. We have also renewed our commitment to the Investing in Women Code — these are the practical actions we are taking to help to level the playing field on our website.
Here’s a micro snapshot of some recent updates from the Ada portfolio that you may have missed:
· Spill has published a wealth of resources to guide companies through, among other things, developing mental health policies and navigating burn out.
· SPOKE’s music-led meditation app was launched to help you look after your mental health.
· Circa5000 (formerly known as Tickr) published their first ever impact report, which not only sets out the impact their investing platform has had since the start of their journey in 2018, but also how they are intentionally building their company to build a better future.
Looking forward
Ada Ventures is the leading Inclusive Investor in Europe. We are hungry for change. We have purpose at the heart of our firm. We exist to serve our amazing community of founders, investors and friends. Come join us — its joyful!
Investment
· We will continue to invest in bold ideas from exceptional founders, particularly in areas that are non-correlated from our current portfolio as we finish investing fund 1 and start to invest fund 2.
· We will continue to grow our scout network across the UK, particularly bringing in scouts from our focus areas of LGBTQ+, disabled entrepreneurs and regions outside of London. If you have access to any of these, or other represented communities, we would love to hear from you.
Community
· We will launch the second iteration of the Ada Angels programme, where we will select angels from among our scouts as well as the wider VC operator community. Watch this space!
· Working with Deep Mind and the Royal Academy of Engineering, we are launching the Ada Breakthrough Prize to find and empower overlooked science & engineering talent.
· We will continue to refine our rolling Venture Partner and scout programme, to ensure diversity of thinking and increase value add for our portfolio and wider community.
· We hope to host AdaCon 2022 in person, on Ada Lovelace Day (11 October 2022). Save the date!
Phew! Thank you to everyone who has been part of the Ada Ventures journey this year. Here’s to 2022 — may it be a year of health and happiness for you all.
