UK-based Ada Ventures is a unique venture capital firm that sets itself apart by focusing on addressing inclusivity and diversity in the startup world. Rather than chasing after the typical SaaS or AI companies, Ada Ventures goes after founders who are making a difference in these areas.
This approach has not only attracted attention, but also significant investments, allowing Ada Ventures to close its second fund at an impressive $80 million. This fund includes investments from big names such as the British Business Bank, The University of Edinburgh, and Atomico, among others.
Even founder investors are backing Ada Ventures’ mission, with individuals such as Taavet Hinrikus (founder of Wise) and Illusian (family office of Ilkka Paananen, co-founder and CEO of Supercell) putting their money behind the venture capital firm.
With this new fund, Ada Ventures plans to invest between £250,000 and £1.5 million in pre-seed and seed stage startups, setting aside a significant amount for follow-on investments. So far, the firm has already made 12 investments from this fund, all focused on climate equity, economic empowerment, and healthy ageing.
Some of the companies that have already received investments from Ada Ventures’ second fund include Alive, BlackBear Glowb, Greenwork, Materials Nexus, MultiOmic, Boldr, and JunoBio.
The firm, which was launched in 2019, has also made it a priority to pay attention to the diversity of the founding teams it backs. In fact, Ada Ventures boasts a portfolio that is 14 times more diverse than the average UK VC in terms of gender and race/ethnicity (based on their own survey data).
So how does Ada Ventures go about finding and supporting diverse founding teams, when so many other venture capital firms struggle to do the same?
The answer lies in their diverse Scout and Angel network. Ada’s Scout program consists of nearly 100 scouts, along with a 20-strong cohort of “Ada Angels” who each have access to an investment pot of up to £50,000. So far, 30% of the investments made from both Fund I and Fund II have been sourced through this network.
Ada Ventures’ co-founder and CEO, Check Warner, explains, “That Scout and angel program is made up of people who’ve never been angel investors before, who are new to venture, and they’re very diverse. These individuals often hold leadership positions within diverse communities, which has resulted in Ada Ventures backing 10 times the number of all-female teams compared to industry benchmarks.”
The firm also offers a unique program for founders, providing emergency childcare through a startup called Bubble.
Warner explains, “We have launched this first-of-its-kind offering for founders, giving them access to backup emergency childcare. So if their usual childcare falls through, we cover the cost of backup childcare. This is the first time a venture capital firm has offered this type of support, and we believe it is crucial in promoting inclusivity and supporting founders to become better business leaders.”
Since diversity is such a fundamental part of Ada Ventures’ mission, Warner was asked about the recent controversy surrounding Hoxton Ventures and their lack of female partners.
“There are 350+ fantastic female VC partners in Europe. There are literally 1000s of associates and principals and I think we all as leaders need to have collective understanding of our responsibility to frankly attract the best women, men… anyone into the industry.”
The controversy arose when Hussein Kanji, a partner at Hoxton Ventures, stated in an interview that there were too few qualified female partners to hire in Europe and that US-based ones were better. Warner responded by saying, “I think that those comments may have been taken out of context.”
When asked if Hoxton has a leadership problem, Warner’s response was, “I think every leader of every VC fund needs to do whatever we can to attract the best talent in the industry. There are lots of great opportunities in venture, and it’s going to continue to grow in the next few years. We all need to make sure that we make it as appealing as possible for anyone to work in venture capital.”
