Investment readiness for impact startups.
Impact startups raise differently. The upside: grant funding, impact investors and angels who care about more than multiples. The trap: it's easy to sound like a charity when investors need to see a business.
I work with founders building for climate, food systems, health and social impact, and I've sat on your side of the table. My own startup turned organic waste into insect protein; I know what it's like to pitch a sustainability business to a commercial investor.
What Working Together Looks Like
- Position the impact as the advantage, not the apology: market, moat, mission in that order
- Map the funding landscape that actually fits: grants (Innovate UK and beyond), impact angels, catalytic funds, SEIS/EIS
- Build the evidence investors need: traction, unit economics, a theory of change that doesn't replace a revenue model
- Get raise-ready: pitch, data room, plan, in the same hands-on way as everything else I do
Through Loughborough University's incubator and programmes like Centrepoint's Centreprise, I spend most of my week with early-stage and impact founders. This is the niche, not a sideline.
Common Questions
What counts as an impact startup?
If your product moves the needle on a real-world problem (SDG-aligned or otherwise) and you intend to make money doing it, that's the brief.
Can impact startups raise from normal VCs and angels?
Yes, when the commercial case stands on its own. That's most of the work: making the business fundable, with the impact as tailwind.
Are there UK grants for impact startups?
Plenty: Innovate UK programmes, foundation funds and local schemes. My free Funding Finder lists the ones worth your time.
Do you work with charities or CICs?
Mostly with for-profit structures, because that's what equity investors fund. CICs and hybrid structures case by case.
I'm Not An Impact Founder. Can I Still Work With You?
Yes. Impact is my specialism, not a filter - most of my clients aren't impact startups at all. Through my work at Loughborough University's incubator I work with dozens of founders across completely different fields, at every early stage. If you need help raising funds or commercialising, don't let the label put you off. Let's have a conversation.