It took Giant Leap two years to raise $15 million for their first fund, but for their second fund, it only took them four weeks to raise the same amount.
Giant Leap was Australia’s first pure-play impact venture fund, and with Giant Leap II they’ve re-united some of the same investors to continue their mission of finding Australia’s most exciting impact startups. They’re looking for rapidly scalable businesses across three themes: sustainable living, health and wellbeing and empowering people.
“The speed at which we raised this new fund demonstrates the increasing demand for opportunities to invest in funds and assets that not only deliver a compelling financial return but help to solve the world’s most pressing social and environmental problems at the same time. There’s no better indicator that people are realising that there is no need to trade off commercial returns for impact.” said Will Richardson, Managing Partner at Giant Leap.
Their first fund was launched in 2016, which went on to invest in 19 companies, including: Future Super, Sendle and Amber.
Peter Haasz invested in the round, he’s an early employee of Culture Amp and co-founder of Bookish. He explained his interest in the VC fund comes from gaining exposure to fast-growth startups that manage the rare combination of profit with purpose.
“Investing in Giant Leap appealed to me because I have experienced the power of fast-growth startups first-hand, and it is a rare opportunity to elevate mission-driven founders who are harnessing that power to make a tangible difference to the world’s gnarliest social and environmental challenges. But this is about more than putting my money where my heart is. The fund’s track record of investing in world-class businesses that achieve both impact and commercial returns means that capital will flow back to me. I can reinvest these funds into new ventures, creating a flywheel of personal impact that spins faster and faster over time.”
Will Richardson and Adam Millgrom were joined by Rachel Yang as partners, when she became partner of the firm this year.